The Shifter Stones
by BlackKyurem27
Summary: The Pokemon world and Earth are separate dimensions, with little to no way of traveling between them. But when Pokemon start to come to Earth, and an evil Team plans to take it over, a rebellious group with the ability to change between human and Pokemon form set out to defeat them.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Nothing stirred in the dark forest. The moon was pitch-black, as it was a new moon, and no light was to be seen at all. An Noctowl hooted in the night, echoing in the vast forest. Various bug Pokémon scattered in the darkness, as though they were trying to avoid something. The soft patter of rain filled the trees with droplets of water, and nourished the vegetation with the energy they needed to survive. The only way one could tell that there was something alive in the forest was the chattering of the bugs and the sound of something rustling the leaves of bushes and grass along the ground. It was a quiet forest, other than the bugs, and had always been a peaceful place for various activities, like meditation. The humans that lived in the area had always taken care of the forest, as there had been a myth that the guardian of the forest lived there that had taken desperate measures to make sure that the forest was kept safe. As a result, the mythical guardian of the forest disappeared. The humans built a shrine in honor of it, and continued to protect the forest as hard as the guardian did.

But the otherwise quiet forest was interrupted by the shouts and yells of men, frantically searching for something. Beams of bright light shone through the dense leaves, targeting Pokemon one by one. Nets captured them, which were then hauled into boxes to be carried away. Terrified cries issued from the mouths of the Pokemon as the men shoved them into crates, and were taken away.

But in one of the bushes farthest from the group of men, a Zorua hid. It panted heavily, as it was tired from running for hours on end. It studied the group of men curiously, thinking, " _I wonder what they're looking for…_ "

One of the men holding a Houndoom yelled, and motioned to an area that had been untouched by the group of evil men. The Houndoom pushed passed the big bushes with its curled silver horns on the top of its head, searching for what its master wanted it to find. Looking around with its red eyes, and smelling with its nose, it found countless Pokemon, which were then taken away in nets and crates. As it captured them, the Houndoom slowly approached the bush that concealed the small Zorua.

When the Houndoom was a few feet from the bush, one of the men shouted, "It's not here!", and the man holding the Houndoom tugged on its leash. The Houndoom looked back at its master and growled as it motioned towards the bush. The man understood what it wanted, and mumbled a single word that made the Zorua tremble with fear: "Kill."

Immediately the Zorua darted from the bush and fled towards the edge of the forest. The Houndoom chased after it, making the man holding it let go of the Zorua didn't stop running as it passed the numbers of Pokemon being shoved into crates, because it feared that if it stopped, the Houndoom would definitely kill it. But even though it ran as fast as it could, the Houndoom was catching up to it. It would only be a matter of moments before the hound would grab the Zorua with it's horrid mouth. It could already see it coming; The Zorua would be swept up off the ground and be in the clutches of the Houndoom's jaws, and would be torn apart by the its vicious teeth. There was no use in running.

And then, as if by some miracle, a blue sphere lighted up the dark from a distance away,and rushed towards the Zorua and Houndoom. It hit the Houndoom squarely in the jaw, and the force of the sphere made it land on the ground with a thud. It didn't move at all.

The Zorua shuddered, because it worried that there might be something else that would kill him in the near future. He felt a rush of wind nearby, and looked up to see a Lucario staring back at him. Its red eyes looked menacing as the light from the group of men reflected upon it. The Lucario was standing in a defensive position, and the Tricky Fox Pokemon realized that it was trying to protect it. It relaxed, even though it knew that it wouldn't be long before something happened to either one of them.

"Don't be scared," the Lucario whispered to the Zorua. He bore a look of concern as he said it, but the otherwise fearless Pokemon looked back at the group of men. "Everything's going to be okay."

The Lucario turned back towards the group of men, and in a flash of light, moved towards them with incredible speed. Within moments, the men had disappeared, and the Zorua's protector was nowhere to be seen. The Zorua trembled in fear, and wouldn't stop for the next few minutes. But it stopped when it heard something rustling the leaves of the trees. It peeked out from the patch of grass it was hiding from, and immediately regretted it.

The forest was blazing hot, and filled with red and white light. Screams could be heard from both Pokemon and people, and flames licked the tree leaves with an intense ferocity that the Zorua had never experienced before. It started to panic, and began to run away. It didn't get far, though, because the Zorua felt something rush past it and pick it up swiftly. It couldn't remain conscious enough to fully understand what was happening, but the only things it knew was that it was traveling at a supersonic speed, and that the one that was carrying it was the Lucario. It hoped that it was taking it somewhere safe, and out of harm's way.

And then it blacked out.

* * *

 **Hey everyone! Thank you for reading this, as it if my first fanfiction! Please write a review for this story, and be on the lookout for more stories by me!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

As the sun rose over a beautiful city built underneath a patch of mountains, one could definitely tell that nothing went wrong here. The birds were chirping, people were greeting each other, and the weather was warm, despite it being December. The city was built like a circle, with roads acting as spokes, the circumference as the borders of the city, and the central point was a tower that loomed over the rest of the busy metropolis. And although the city was fairly quiet, the citizens living there enjoyed it very much.

In one of houses near the edge of the metropolis, a 16 year old boy awoke, screaming. He did that because of a nightmare, of course. When the teen realized that he was actually awake, and not in the depths of slumber, he sighed. He mumbled something quietly to himself, and heard a moan come from the other side of the room. The 16 year old turned towards the other person, who began to speak.

"Jeez, Finn," A 14 year old boy watched Finn groggily, who then reached towards the night table for his glasses. The 14 year old looked at the alarm clock the boys both shared as he adjusted his glasses and muttered, "It's too early for this…"

"Sorry, Maxwell," Finn began to make his bed, and went to their closet to pick out his outfit for the day. "I just had a bad dream."

"Oh..." Maxwell watched Finn with a concerned look, and said, "What was it about?"

"I can't remember," Finn took off his shirt, and swapped it with a dark blue long sleeved one. "I think it was something about a forest…"

"At least it's over now," Maxwell walked out of the room to go to the bathroom, while Finn slipped on a pair of black jeans and his trusty black tennis shoes. He attempted to fix his black hair as best as he could, but it was to no avail. He looked at the alarm clock. It read 6:42. "Ugh," He sighed as he walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. " _And_ it's a Monday too."

Maxwell came back, and was fully ready for school. He gave Finn a look that said, " _Did you brush your teeth_?"

Finn could tell what Maxwell was trying to tell him. "Jeez, since when did you become _Mom_?" Finn muttered something as he walked to the bathroom to brush his teeth quickly, and then came back to the kitchen. He scanned the cabinets for a moment before opening the one that held the bowls and cereal. When Maxwell went to see what Finn was up to, the 16 year old was already eating cereal.

"What are you _doing_?" Maxwell glared at his older brother. "You _know_ I wanted to get to school early today!"

"What does it look like? I'm eating breakfast." Finn was a lover of all food, and always made sure he had the chance to eat. "If you don't want something to eat, why don't you go watch the news or something?" He suggested with a mouthful of Frosted Mini Wheats.

" _Fine_ ," Maxwell huffed, and then walked to the living room. He turned on the TV and changed it to the news channel. Maxwell sat on the couch, devoting himself to the information the news anchor had to give.

" _And lastly, at the Ancient Artifacts Exhibit at the local museum, a collection of stones has been stolen. Police officials have not found any evidence as to who is responsible for the theft, and anyone who has any information that may be useful information to the police are encouraged to contact them at this number."_ A phone number flashed on the screen for a moment before returning back to the news anchor. _"Thank you for watching, and have a good day."_

Maxwell turned the TV off and looked back at Finn, who had finished his cereal. "Well?"

"Well _what_?"

" _Well_ , _I_ ' _m_ done with the news, and _you're_ done with breakfast. Can we go now?"

"Sure."

* * *

Because the city was so large, there were plenty of alleyways where people could slip in and out of. And in one of the alleys near the central node of the city, a group of men started loading groups of crates into a storage warehouse.

"Don't drop those crates!" One of the Admins yelled as a pair of men almost let their wood crate fall to the ground.

"Sorry," One of the men called back, who then preceded to stuffing the box into the almost full storage shed.

Multiple sets of eyes watched the operation commence carefully, making sure that nothing went undone. Everyone made sure that no one hampered their progress, like so many of the other Teams that were crippled by meddling kids.

But someone else was watching from the rooftop of a nearby building. A boy, about 17, scanned the Team's every action, and watched their every move. His ice blue eyes found a pattern in the Team's movement, and when the pattern offered a gap, the teen jumped off of the rooftop and landed with a flourish.

Most of the Grunts of the Team turned to face the 17 year old and gasped. There was a moment of silence, but was interrupted when someone yelled, "See? I _told_ you so! This happens _every time_! Rocket, Magma, Aqua, Galactic, Plasma, Flare, Skull! All fooled by a kid!"

"Shut up!" One of the Admins yelled at the ranting Grunt, who immediately stopped talking. The Admin looked back towards the invader, who wore an unimpressed smirk.

The 17 year old brushed his long black hair with red highlights out of his eyesight, and his eyes locked with the Admin's. "I'm pretty sure that you did _not_ just call me a kid." The teen then balled up his fists and punched the nearest Grunt in the stomach, who doubled over in pain.

Immediately the Admin drew out a Pokeball, and pressed the button in the middle of the small sphere. "Go, Pangoro." He said casually, as the Daunting Pokemon appeared in front of the teen. The Pangoro glared at his opponent, waiting for its master's orders. "Pangoro, Low Sweep."

The Pangoro immediately bounded off towards the invader. The teen smiled maliciously. "Great," he said as he prepared for the incoming attack. "A _real_ challenge." The teen jumped over the Pangoro with ease, and readied his own attack. The stone around his neck started to glow, and a pitch-black shock wave emitted from the teen, and rushed towards the Pangoro. The attack jolted it, but the shock wave did very little damage. " _Damn_ ," the teen muttered, and slapped the side of his head forcefully. Pangoro was a Dark/Fighting type Pokemon, so Dark type moves wouldn't be very effective against it.

"Pangoro, Focus Blast." The Admin said calmly. The Grunts were scattering like ants, depositing boxes and fleeing the alley because of the unexpected battle. But some of the Grunts stood defensively beside their Admin, and had released their own Pokemon to fight against the teen. The Pangoro started to build a sphere of orange energy that threatened to kill the teen if it landed. The teen was definitely outnumbered, but he wasn't about to back down.

"Bring in on!" He yelled, and charged towards the group of Pokemon. The teen dodged several attacks, and dished out his own. Although he knocked out only a few, his real goal was the Pangoro.

The Daunting Pokemon was about to fire its orange sphere of energy when a blue sphere hit the side of its face. The Pangoro fell to the ground, and didn't move at all. The teen looked towards where the sphere had originated, and his eyes laid upon a Lucario.

"I had this under control!" The teen yelled threw his hands up in the air as the Lucario rushed to his side. "No one told you to come over here and mess up my perfectly good plan!"

"Uh huh," The Lucario muttered sarcastically, who then proceeded to attack to mob of evil Pokemon. "I thought I told you to stay hidden." The Lucario's voice was filled with disappointment, and the teen just stared at the Aura Pokemon.

"You _did_ , but _I_ decided to figure out what these guys were up to. And it _looks_ like I hit the jackpot!" The stone around the teen's neck lit up again, and the 17 year old's fingers sharpened, darkening as a sinister force surrounded the teen. He rushed towards a Haunter and slashed it violently. The Haunter was knocked out instantly, but two more of the Grunt's Pokemon were released in its place. This pattern was repeated every time an enemy was knocked out. And when the teen and the Lucario realized this, the 17 year old yelled, " _Damn_ , you guys might as well be called 'Team _Hydra_ ' with the way you guys fight!"

The Admin who had the Pangoro thought to himself for a moment, and mumbled, "That's a good name…"

" _Hello_!" The teen yelled at the Admin, who snapped out of his thoughts. "A _lot_ of you guys need to pay _attention_!" The teen was about to start another attack run when he felt the Lucario grab his shoulder. "What?" He jerked his shoulder from the Lucario's grasp.

"If we keep on going, we're not going to make it." The Lucario then grabbed the teen by the arm, and ran at an extreme speed very few Pokemon could match. For the next few moments, the world of Earth passed by quickly, and the teen felt like he was going to be sick. But before anything could come up, the Lucario stopped at an abandoned warehouse just outside the borders of the city. The Lucario checked the place out for a moment before nodding his head in confirmation. "This'll do."

The teen gave him a hesitant look. "What do you _mean_ , ' _This'll do_?' This place is a piece of Trubbish!"

"At least it isn't conspicuous," The Lucario countered. "You have to understand, this is supposed to be an under-the-radar operation. We can't afford to screw this up."

" _Jeez_ , you make this all sound like a walk in the park," The teen muttered sarcastically.

"In the worst case scenario," The Lucario muttered darkly, "We probably won't make it out of this alive."

* * *

 **A.N: Hello readers! I'm already enjoying writing this, and I hope you all are looking forward to reading this as well!**

 **Shoutout to my first reviewer, St. Elmo's Fire, who gave me a better idea on how to word my fanfic better, and my first follower, gamerj14!**

 **Thanks a lot! ;)**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Qwill?"

"Here." Finn raised his hand, and the chaperone who was taking attendance took note of it.

"Okay, everyone's here." The chaperone walked back to her seat on the bus, and told the bus driver to start driving. The bus lurched forwards, and began towards its destination.

Finn looked out of the bus window, losing himself in the music he was listening to. He watched the sights of the city go by, and it was only about 30 minutes when the bus stopped. Maxwell, who was sitting beside Finn, tapped his brother's shoulder. "We're here."

Finn paused the song and smiled. " _Yes,_ " his voice filled with enthusiasm. "Food…"

"It's only 10 o'clock," Maxwell reminded. " _and_ we have to go through this tour first." His voice had a disinterested tone to it. The two boys followed the line of students who were getting off the bus, and stood in front of the city's museum. Finn gazed at its large bronze doors in amazement while Maxwell only looked at it with disappointment.

"I thought you _liked_ history and all that kind of stuff." Finn wasn't the history type, but Maxwell certainly was.

"It gets boring after a while," Maxwell sighed. "For a city so big, you'd _think_ that maybe they would add some more exhibits…"

The chaperones ushered the high school students inside quickly, and the tour guide began her planned lectures. Finn and Maxwell followed the group around as the tour guide pointed to various exhibits, including one about dinosaur fossils, the ocean, and extinct animals. The tour guide stopped for a moment at the ancient artifacts exhibit before moving on quietly.

"I wonder why the lady didn't blab her mouth about old stuff," Finn muttered in Maxwell's ear.

"I think it's because those stones were stolen last night," Maxwell recalled what the news anchor had said earlier on the news that morning. "I would be ashamed if something of mine was stolen." Maxwell turned towards his brother, who hadn't heard a word of what the 14 year old had said. Instead of listening to his younger sibling, Finn was actually watching a girl about his age with a group of her friends. They talked as the group of high school students walked around, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Finn was staring at her. "Finn?" Maxwell touched his brother's shoulder.

Finn jumped slightly, and then muttered, "Yeah?"

Maxwell smiled. "That's sad."

" _What's_ sad?"

"The fact that you keep on staring at Lydia Browells over there, and the fact that you never asked her out."

"That's not sad!" Finn defended himself. "She just has nice hair!" He turned his back to Maxwell and crossed his arms. "It's not like _you_ know how that feels..."

Maxwell didn't make a comment on that.

"Okay, students," the tour guide interrupted the brother's conversation with her planned speech. "Let's come over here for a moment-"

" _God_ , if this lady doesn't shut up in the next few seconds, I _swear_ I'm going to kill somebody!" Someone muttered from the center of the group. All heads turned towards the person who spoke, which was Alfred Jenkins. Alfred was a bit muscular, with short brown hair, and was pretty much a jerk. Everyone knew that. Alfred was definitely not the type who would care about anyone's personal problems, and was the type of person who would use his fists to conquer any challenge.

One of the chaperones told Alfred to be quiet, and to respect the tour guide, who was a bit dazed by the obnoxious teen's comment.

"Let's keep on going, shall we?"

* * *

By the time it was noon, the touring group of high school students gathered in the museum's cafeteria to eat lunch. Finn decided to pick a table that was near where Lydia and her friends sat, and watched her with thoughtful eyes. And Maxwell just stared at Finn, shaking his head sadly.

"If you like the girl _that_ much, you should _really_ go ask her out."

Finn turned around to face his brother. "But what if I go ask her and she turns me down?" Finn moaned.

"Seriously?" Maxwell muttered, eyebrows arched. "You're afraid of someone turning you down? Is it because of that time with Danielle, because-"

"No!" Finn interrupted. "For starters, I never liked Danielle. She liked me, so that was a one-way relationship. Secondly, look at Lydia. She's really cute, and I could literally see guys waiting in line for their chance to-"

" _And_ we're done!" Maxwell said, getting around a sensitive topic. He instead changed the subject. " _You_ need to go eat something, instead of obsessing over Lydia."

"Fine…" Finn slumped out of his chair as he walked over to the buffet line, still facing his brother. "And I'm _not_ obsessing over her!" As Finn turned around, he accidentally bumped into someone, causing both of them to fall down onto the ground. The other person had an empty food tray in their hands and had dropped it when Finn bumped into them.

"Sorry," the person mumbled as they picked up their tray. "I can be a clutz sometimes…" The two people looked up into each other's eyes, and Finn tensed up immediately. The person whom he had bumped into was none other than Lydia Browells.

"H...h...hi…" Finn stuttered, at a loss of words. Other students in the cafeteria had noticed the two's accident, and had already started to spread gossip about the them. "I…uh…"

"Are you okay?" Lydia asked politely, giving Finn a look of concern. She thought about why he would be acting like that for a moment before it clicked into her head. " _Ooooh_ …" Lydia started nodding, as her mind dwelled on the idea for a moment. She helped Finn up and shook his hand. She noticed the stone around Finn's neck and and asked, "That's a nice necklace. Where'd you get it?"

Finn, who had finally regained his confidence again, answered, "M...my grandfather gave it to me when I was younger."

"Nice," Lydia smiled sincerely. "Well, it was nice talking to you, Finn." She began to walk away as she added, "Maybe we'll be able to talk again soon." She walked back to her group of friends, who had already started talking about her and Finn's imaginary romance.

Maxwell helped Finn back to their table, and brought him a plate of food. Finn's face stayed complacent the whole time; shocked, and frightened to death. "That was a great opportunity to tell her how you feel about her, but no! You just had to blow it for yourself!"

"She knew my name," Finn mumbled to himself.

"Good grief, he's _never_ going to get over this."

* * *

Finn and Maxwell arrived home at around 4:00, and Finn was back to his normal personality. " _And_ _not_ _all_ _squirmy_ _with_ _all_ _of_ _that_ _yucky_ _love_ _stuff_ ," Maxwell thought to himself as he worked on his homework in the living room.

Finn was up in the boy's bedroom, his mind going over what had happened that day. Of _course_ he blew his (possibly) only chance of asking Lydia out, and there was no way on Earth that he would get the opportunity to ask her again. He had gotten nervous around her, and had acted like a complete fool. Of _course_ she wasn't going to like him if he couldn't even say his name!

"At least she complimented my necklace," Finn fingered the crystal around his neck, which was reflecting the light from the bedroom. He smiled, recalling the many memories of him and his adventurous grandfather. He thought about the time when his grandfather had just come back from one of his expeditions, and had given Finn the stone as a souvenir. " _I_ _found_ _this when I had gotten lost in a cave_ ," Finn's grandfather told a younger Finn. " _and I thought to myself, 'Ben, when I get out of here, I'm going to give this to Finn.' And I got out of that cave, came back here, and now it's yours._ " Finn remembered the way the cold stone felt in his hands, and made a necklace for it so then it would be with Finn all the time.

Finn looked at his necklace again, noticing that it was reflecting the lights in the room. But it was a bit weird, though, because he was facing away from the light, so the stone _couldn't_ be reflecting light. Finn gazed into the crystal a bit closer, and realized that they stone was actually _glowing_ _by_ _itself_.

"Uh…" Finn's eyes watched it warily. The stone started to glow much stronger than before, and Finn began to take the necklace off quickly. But as his fingers were about to unclip it, the stone's white light started to surround him. Finn began to hyperventilate as his body became covered in the mysterious white light. He felt himself shrink rapidly, and his body started to shape itself into a quadruped-like stance. Finn was blinded by the light, but only for a moment. When he could see himself again, he sighed, and then tried to stand up. But he couldn't balance himself well enough to stand up for long. "Huh," Finn mumbled to himself before looking in the mirror.

Finn, who used to look like a human, now stood on four legs, and colored black and blue. He had two oval-ish ears on top of his head, a thin black tail with a little yellow star on the end, light blue paws, golden eyes, and long patches of black fur on his head and neck that might be a mane.

"Oh _crap_."

* * *

 **A.N: Bum bum bum! Finn's in a bit of a pickle right now, but what will happen next for this guy?**

 **Merry Christmas (even though it's the day after Christmas, but still), and have lots of fun with whatever you're doing! I don't know what you do at home, but I hope its good! :)**

 **And if I could ask for one favor from my readers, it would be, 'Please write a review for my fanfic!' I can't read people's minds (even though that would be cool if I could!), so I would like to know what you guys think about this story, and what could be done to make it better! Because my definition of great might not meet your standards… he he…**

 **But anyway, Merry Christmas, and have a happy New Year (even though I'm sure I will see you guys again before then) ! :)**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"Oh crap."

Finn watched his reflection in the bedroom carefully, moving ever so slightly. His cat-like appearance followed every move made by Finn, leaving the 16 year old speechless. He didn't know what he had done to make himself look this way, but it was making him freak out even more by the minute. " _Maybe this is all just a dream,"_ He reasoned. _"It's all just a dream. I've just got to wake up._ " Finn trotted towards the closest wall and started banging his head on it. It hurt, of course, but it might be the trick to-

"Finn?" Maxwell's voice sounded from the living room. "Are you okay in there?"

Finn thought he heard something scrape on carpeted floor, and the sound of shuffling feet heading towards the boys bedroom. "I'm fine!" Finn's voice squeaked out. "Don't c-come in!" The confused teen rushed towards the bedroom door, closing it before Maxwell entered the hallway.

Maxwell stopped at the closed door, respecting his brother's plea. "Why?" Maxwell played with the doorknob as Finn thought up of a good excuse.

"I, uh… I-I'm naked…" Finn stuttered. " _Good_ _idea_ ," Finn thought to himself.

"Okay, I just won't look." Maxwell opened the door and walked in, facing his side of the room. Finn crawled underneath his bed, making sure he was out of his brother's eyesight. The two were silent for a moment before Maxwell muttered, "This is a bit weird, isn't it?"

Finn scoffed. "Just a little bit," Finn's voice cracked, and was filled with nervousness.

"Are you okay?" Maxwell asked as he grabbed a change of clothes out of their closet. "I heard something banging on the wall, and your voice sounds a bit messed up, so I just wanted to check up on you."

"I'm fine," Finn lied from under the bed. He hated to lie to his brother, but he didn't want anyone to know what was going on with him yet. "Could you _please_ get out, though? This is getting weirder by the moment…"

"Oh! Sorry," Maxwell stood at the entrance of the doorframe and said, "Well, I'm gonna go take my shower, so don't die or anything." Maxwell walked out of room, leaving the door open, and headed towards the bathroom.

Finn waited until he heard water splashing irregularly in the shower to get out from under the bed. He paced around the bedroom for a few moments, trying to think. " _If_ _this is just a_ _dream_ , _then_ _that_ _means_ _that_ _the_ _thing_ _with_ _Lydia_ _isn't_ _real_!" Finn smiled, thinking that maybe things would go better the next time the two met. He sighed, thinking, " _Good_ _grief_ , _Finn_ , _pull_ _yourself_ _together_! _Think_ _about_ _the_ _present_! _Maybe_ _taking_ _a_ _walk_ _outside_ _will_ _clear_ _my_ _mind_ _a_ _bit_." He nodded to himself, and started to walk towards the front door. He thought about telling Maxwell about him going outside, but he decided against it in favor of just telling him when Finn got back.

Finn stood in front of the door, attempting to balance on his back paws in order to grasp the doorknob with his front ones. He had to try a couple of times, since he wasn't used to moving around like that before, but got lucky after a few tries, and the door gently opened. Finn stepped out, and closed the door with the same amount of difficulty as it took to open it.

Finn looked towards the rest of the city, gazing at the patch of mountains that loomed over the metropolis. Everything seemed clearer to Finn as he strolled along the sidewalk, and all of the quietest sounds could be heard in Finn's ears. He appreciated that feeling; the thought of actually enjoying life, instead of breezing through it. Finn genuinely felt happy as he passed the groups of people talking excitedly about different topics, and watched the dozens of animals exploring the rest of the world with glee. Even though Finn was only about two feet high, he was starting to see things in a new point of view; one that he enjoyed much more than the human point of view.

But all of his happiness drained away when he heard a scream from a few streets down. His ears directed Finn towards the scream, and Finn bolted towards it. He stopped at an alley, and saw an elderly woman being attacked by a mob of men in space gray jumpsuits. The men weren't necessarily attacking her; they just seemed to be robbing her of something.

"Get your hands off her!" Finn yelled. The men in the jumpsuits turned their heads towards the 16 year old, shock arriving on their faces. The woman also showed shock on her face, but there was something else there that Finn couldn't place. Recognition?

"Oh _crap_!" One of the men shouted. "How did a _Luxio_ get here? Pokemon aren't supposed to live in this dimension!"

"A _what_?" Finn _literally_ no idea what they had just said. But what clicked in his mind was 'Pokemon'. He wasn't a fan of the famous video game franchise, but Maxwell was the utmost authority on the subject. But Pokemon never lived on Earth, but yet-

"I'll take care of this stupid fuzzball! You guys go ahead!" One of men shouted, and the rest of the jumpsuit-clad men ran down the alley. The lone man, who must have been the leader, pulled out a red and white sphere, pressed the small button in the middle, releasing a beam of white light. Finn stepped back, mostly in fear, as a small purple goblin-like creature with light blue crystals for eyes appeared in front of the man.

The woman, who wad been quiet until now, said, "Luxio, _please_! You need to attack that Sableye before something happens to either one of us!"

"But I don't know how!" Finn yelled back as the 'Sableye' started to emanate an eerie darkness. Finn was already shocked at the fact that he had turned somehow into a Pokemon, but to just start attacking another Pokemon? " _What did they put in those muffins that I ate earlier?_ " He thought to himself.

"Just think of an attack, and it will happen!" The woman informed.

"Sableye! Dark Pulse!" The man yelled, and the Darkness Pokemon released a shockwave of dark energy that rushed towards Finn. It hit the teen full on, and tossed Finn backwards. He landed on the opposite side of the alley, groaning as he stood back up.

A dark light entered Finn's eyes as he said, "So you wanna play naughty? I can do that too." Finn rushed towards the Sableye with incredible speed, and slashed it with his claws. He felt an unusual pleasure wash over him, and scratched the Sableye a few more times before Finn was knocked back again by another Dark Pulse. When Finn recovered from his recent injury, he looked back and realized that that the Sableye had taken absolutely no damage. "What the heck!?" He yelled out loud. "I hit that thing!"

"Scratch is a normal-type move, and Sableye is a Dark/Ghost type, so normal-type moves won't affect it!" The elderly women shouted. "Your primary type is Electric, so think of something shocking!"

Both the man and Finn paused their battle for a moment to stare at the woman. "Was that pun intended or no?" Finn asked.

"Uh," The woman pondered for a moment before answering, " _No_ , actually, but it makes sense now…" She started mumbling about something, so the two competitors decided to continue fighting.

Finn moved first. He remembered watching Maxwell play one of his Pokemon games, and remembered a electric mouse-looking Pokemon use a move called Thunderbolt. As he was running, he thought about a bolt of lightning, and a strand of electricity ran out from him to the Sableye. The jewel-encrusted Pokemon was shocked for a moment, but recovered quickly. The Sableye counter attacked quickly with a Shadow Claw, which missed because of Finn's quick agility. But the Sableye got the better of Finn with a cleverly planned Power Gem. Finn landed with a thud, and felt too tired to fight anymore. The Sableye approached the fallen teen, ready to kill.

But as the Darkness Pokemon was about to strike, a shadow attacked the Sableye viciously, knocking it out completely. Finn looked for the source of the shadow with tired eyes. He saw a boy, around his age, with shoulder length black hair with red highlights, and ice blue eyes. The boy tossed the Sableye towards its Trainer, whose fear was completely plastered on his face. The man in the jumpsuit returned his Pokemon, and started to run away from the two teens. "Forget this man, _forget_ _this_!" He yelled as he disappeared further into the alley.

The boy who saved Finn turned towards the injured teen, and lifted him up with ease. The woman rushed to Finn's aid, checking him for potential injuries. "I think he'll be fine," She concluded, and the boy carrying Finn grunted in agreement. "He might pass out from exhaustion though."

The black haired boy nodded as a bright blue streak of light headed towards the three. Finn tried to cringe, but he didn't have the energy for it. But before the light ran into them, it stopped, and a tall black and blue dog-like creature appeared in front of them. The jackal seemed to understand what the woman was thinking, and took Finn in his spiked arms. It took off with an incredible speed Finn couldn't bear, and soon was consumed by the clutches of unconsciousness.

* * *

 **A.N.: Hey you guys! A lot happened in this chapter, and I'm honestly really excited for the next chapter! I'm surprised I finished this chapter in a day, despite the fact that I felt distracted today. Not distracted enough to make this chapter crappy, but you all read it, so please write a review for this!**

 **Shoutout to my good friend ClassifiedMc, who's given me great tips to make this story better!**

 **And I had no idea why the last chapter was completely bold when I first posted it, but I fixed it a few hours later, so all's good (for now. Who knows what'll happen next) !**

 **But anyway, I will see you guys again in the next installment of** **The Shifter's Stone** **, where there's hopefully going to be an explanation as to what's all going on!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

 _It was raining outside that night. Finn, who was only two at the time, was watching his father pack his bags for some kind of trip. His father was grumbling about something, but Finn was too young to understand the words. His father was almost done packing the bag when Finn's mother walked into the room._

 _"What's going on, honey?" She asked, with a slight look of concern on her face. "I thought your next trip would be in a couple of months…"_

 _"I know, Viola, but I_ have _to go to this one," Finn's father lifted the bag off of his bed as he walked into the living room. Viola picked Finn up, following her husband. "They said that this one is important."_

 _"They say_ all of them _are important," She retorted firmly. "Can't you at least miss a meeting for once? I mean, It's a couple of weeks from Christmas, and the boys really need you to be there for them. Can't you work something out with them? Reschedule it?"_

 _"No," Finn's father opened the door, rain spilling inside. "They want me to be there for their project. If I miss this one, I'm as good as fired."_

 _"But Mark-"_

 _"Viola, I_ can't _miss this one!" Mark yelled, making Viola shiver a bit with fear. Mark's once tense shoulders eased a little when he realized what state his wife was in. He sighed, and stuttered, "Viola, I-I…"_

 _"Just go," She mumbled, and walked away from her husband. Mark picked up his bag and somberly walked out the door, closed it quietly, heading into the torrential rain._

 _That was the last time someone had seen Mark Qwill._

* * *

Finn awoke with a sigh. He looked around, scanning the area for any potential threats. Nope. Finn sighed again, and started to notice more detail where he was at. He was in a messed-up looking warehouse, probably outside the borders of the city. It seemed as though it hadn't been used for decades, as there had been rust coating the walls, and drops of water dripped slowly from the ceiling. Vines wrapped around the metal support bars like ants, and the walls and floors were densely covered in moss.

But it seemed like someone had been living there, because the little fire that was built next to him was still giving the teen warmth. "Hello?" His voice cracked as he called out. He heard something rustling from behind him. "Who is-"

"Great, he's awake." An elderly woman's voice sounded from behind him, making Finn turn around in curiosity. He thought it was the old lady from the alley, but when he looked, he saw _something else_. It was a flower-looking creature about his height, with white hair-like tufts on it's head, wearing a green dress-like outfit, and a red and blue flower on either hand.

"Whoa!" Finn stood up on his paws, feeling a rush of pain wash over him. " _Oh-kay_ , that was _not_ what I was expecting!" He blurted out loud.

"It's okay," the flower-like creature said gently. "You've already been through enough lately." The flowers on its hands started to glow a warm green as it approached Finn.

Finn, who was lying on the ground, thought to himself, "It's weird, because that flower thing's voice sounds just like that lady in the alley…" The glow coming from its 'hands' surrounded Finn's body, but the teen felt himself feeling more refreshed than hurt. It was almost like the glow helped him.

"Aromatherapy," The flower creature mumbled to herself. "It's really helpful in these cases."

"It _is_ you!" Finn blurted, attempting to sit up. "You're that lady from the alley! But how-"

"Hush, child," the standing flower cooed. "You can call me Rosa, if you like."

"Okay" Finn smiled as he stared into the elderly woman's eyes. He felt a sense of calm rush over him, and was sure it was because of the flower's… abilities. "but how-"

"I think you will find out sooner rather than later," Rosa smiled as two figures walked into the room. One was the teen who had saved Finn from the Sableye, but the other one was someone who the injured teen had never seen before. It was a man, about in his 30's, with two strands of braided black hair, red eyes, a blue long-sleeved t-shirt with a cream colored vest, and blue shorts. The older man didn't say anything as he noticed Finn, but the other teen definitely had some choice words.

"Why the _hell_ did we have to bring this kid here?" The other teen muttered. "He has _literally_ no idea what's going on!"

"Z," The older man said calmly, and the 17 year old stopped talking. The older man turned to Finn and said, "I'm sorry about that. Z's usually like that. "

Z turned his back to the others and scoffed. "Am _not_. I can't help it if someone's an idiot."

Finn stared at Z for a moment in disbelief, and then said, " _Excuse_ _me_ , I am not an idiot! Check the report cards, check the grade books, because I can _already_ tell you that I'm doing a whole lot better than-"

"Can you shut up now?" Z muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're _already_ giving me a headache."

"I have a feeling that these two are not going to be the best of friends," Rosa whispered in the other man's ear.

The man nodded, mumbling, "But they're going to have to work together in order for our plan to work."

Finn and Z paused their argument for a moment, and yelled, "Wait, _what_?!" The rivaling teens looked at each other before Z muttered, "Look, Leon, I'm not gonna be able to talk to this kid for long, or else I'm _literally_ going to pull my hair out. And you haven't exactly been clear as to why we're here in the first place, so an explanation would be nice!"

The man known as Leon sighed, and mumbled, "Okay, but there are a few things that need to be known first."

* * *

 _No one was sure when Team Ascent was first created, but some had speculated that it used to be a large scientific company focused on the idea of human transformation into Pokemon. Although they were not able to replicate this process artificially, one such department had a stroke of luck when some of their miners found a stone that held similar capabilities that Ascent was looking for in a local cave. They dug through the mountains for years, searching for more of these stones. After Ascent had dug through one mountain, they would go to the next one, and had traveled the world in search of them, now dubbed "Shifter Stones"._

 _Many civilians, Trainers, and League Officials were angry about the fact that Ascent was destroying the habitats of the various Pokemon that lived in the mountains, and sought out to seek justice. After negotiating with the CEO of Ascent, the project was terminated, along with the rest of the company. What happened to the Shifter Stones was unknown._

 _But a few years ago, a group with the same name as Ascent rose, and started collecting the Shifter Stones again. A couple of Trainers teamed up to try and defeat Team Ascent, but were easily defeated themselves. They were able to gather a few of the Shifter Stones, and were then used for research._

 _It was soon found out that humans and Pokemon's souls were the same, but their appearance varied. With the right resources, one could turn from a human to a Pokemon, and vice versa. And with the Shifter Stones, it was possible to do just that._

 _Word soon got out about the Shifter Stones, and the public started to get curious about them. They wanted to know if they could acquire them, and many started to panic as they thought about how they could be used for evil. The god Pokemon, Arceus, noticed this, and sent all of the Shifter Stones to another dimension, never to be seen again in the Pokemon world._

* * *

"Wait a minute," Finn interrupted. "If you know that, does that mean…"

"Yes." Rosa answered politely. "We're from the Pokemon world."

"Well," Leon corrected. "We're Pokemon."

Finn thought to himself for a moment, and mumbled, "So, you guys are Pokemon, but how do you…"

"How do we look like humans?" Rosa asked, fiddling with the necklace around her neck. Finn's eyes followed down towards the stone that was at the end of the chain. It looked just like the one he had.

And then it clicked in his mind. He grabbed the chain around his neck and said, "This is one of the Shifter Stones, _isn't it_?"

" _Duh_ ," Z muttered sarcastically. "Any normal idiot would know that by now."

"I'm really about to do something with this guy, and it's _not_ going to be pretty." Finn muttered.

"Please," Rosa sighed. "Fighting with each other won't get you anywhere." Rosa looked at Leon, who nodded in agreement.

The stone around Leon's neck started to glow, and his body became engulfed in the same white light Finn had experienced earlier. After a moment, Leon looked like the same jackal-looking thing that had ran at high speed before Finn had passed out. The same thing happened to the one around Z's neck, and the rival teen gained a fox-like appearance, with dark black fur, long red hair with a few black streaks, red claws, and a long snout wearing a mischievous grin.

"I'm a Lucario, Rosa is a Roserade, and Z is a Zoroark," Leon stated simply. "We found these Shifter Stones when we arrived here, and have been using them to conceal our identities."

"So if you guys found them here, that means that Earth is where Arceus sent the Shifter Stones to." Finn finished with a frown. "And if the Shifter Stones are here, then that Team Ascent are here as well."

"Yeah, the guy you were fighting in the alley was part of Team Ascent," Z mumbled. "No doubt they were trying to nab Rosa's Stone."

Leon nodded, and then said, "So we came here to stop them, and make them return to the Pokemon world."

"Okay," Finn nodded, thinking to himself for a moment before continuing. "I, uh, have two questions, though. First one, how did you guys get here, and two, how are you guys going to get Team Ascent out of here?"

"Well," Leon said quietly as his hand started to rub the back of his head. "We, um…" He trailed off, not sure what to say.

"We got banished here." Z stated bluntly, who crossed his arms as he huffed with disappointment. "And I was _so_ close to beating that record too…"

"Let's just say that a certain Hoopa did not like us," Leon mumbled.

"And the plan?"

The three Pokemon glanced at one another, and then looked back at Finn. They were quiet for a moment when Z muttered, "There isn't a plan, isn't there?"

"No," Rosa sighed. "We need more Shifters to help us. Shifters like you." Rosa pointed with her red rose hand towards Finn and said, "We need you Finn. We need you to join us, and take out Team Ascent for good."

The three Pokemon looked at the black haired teen, waiting for an answer. Finn thought to himself, not sure of what to do. Leon seemed to understand Finn's predicament, and motioned for the others to leave him alone for a few minutes. Finn paced around the small room, thinking whether or not he should join. Yes, he was the selfless type, and would do anything to help them, but he could already tell that this was going to be dangerous, and he might not live for too long. Finn called the for the three, and the Lucario, Roserade, and Zoroark walked in, ready for an answer.

Finn looked into each of their eyes, noticing the peace in Rosa's yellowish red ones, Leon's compassion in his red ones, and Z's… something in his blue ones. He realized in that moment what he was going to say.

"I'll do it."

* * *

 **A.N.: Hey guys! This chapter took a bit longer than I expected, because of technical reasons that cannot be discussed (great, now no one will know that phone screen froze up and I had to get someone manual reset my phone to get it to work again! )**

 **Anyway, while the technical difficulties were going on, I thought about changing the title to 'The Shifter Stones'. I'm not sure what you guys think is better, so I'm opening up a poll for you guys to vote. I'm thinking that in a couple of days (probably when the next chapter comes out) I'll close the polls, and I'll see how it goes. The poll will be on my profile, so PLEASE VOTE!**

 **In other news, thank you, Anonymous (guest) for your review (I very much appreciate it!), and my (now) four followers! Thanks ClassifiedMc, for the suggestions, because I love that kind of stuff all the time!**

 **Chapter Five is next, and Finn has agreed to join the cause! What will happen next? We will find out soon!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five:**

"I'll do it."

Leon and Rosa smiled as Z crossed his arms. "I'm not going to handle this," He muttered as he walked out of the room. "You two are the adults, so _you guys_ can take care of this."

"Oh good grief," Finn face palmed. " _I_ agree to help you guys, and _this_ is what I get," The teen muttered as he gestured a hand towards the grouchy 17 year old.

"I think you two will get better as the time goes by," Rosa smiled.

"I doubt it," Finn muttered, and then checked his watch out of habit. He screamed and yelled, "It's 8:00! I gotta get home!" He stood up and started to run out of the building, but stopped to turn around when he got to the entrance. "Quick question: Which way's the city?"

Rosa pointed him the right way when Leon went to pick Finn up. The Lucario ran, with Finn in his arms, towards the city, and stopped in front of Finn's yard. He sat Finn down, who was still in his Luxio form, and patted him on the head. Leon smiled, thinking about one of his-

"Question," Finn asked as he walked around, still a bit dazed from Leon's speed run. "How do I look like a normal person again?"

Leon took a moment to think about it, and then said, "I never really thought about that, but I guess you would just think about being a human, and the Shifter Stone does the rest." And without any moment's hesitation, Leon vanished from Finn's sight.

Finn looked down at the Stone around his neck, and did what Leon had suggested. And almost immediately, the Stone enveloped Finn in it's white light, and returned the 16 year old to his human self.

He smiled, and then walked up to the front door. He knocked on it, waiting for someone to answer. The blinds covering the front window shifted, and Finn could see his brother's eyes watching him. Maxwell disappeared from the window, and Finn could hear his voice, saying, "Mom, it's Finn!" The door was unlocked quickly, and the 16 year old saw his mother from the crack of the door.

" _God_ , Finn, where were you?!" She asked, embracing her son with a violent grip. Finn gasped as he escaped from his mom's hug, giving her a look that said it all.

"I was just out with some friends," Finn lied, hi face turning a little red as he said it. Finn hated to lie anyway, but to lie in front of his mom? That was playing with fire, and that was definitely a bad idea.

Viola gave her son an incredulous look as Finn walked into the house. "I hope you weren't doing something you weren't supposed to…"

Finn smiled as he walked into his bedroom. He stopped, turned around, and said, "If you're implying that I had sex, you _know_ that I don't have a girlfriend."

He paused when he heard Maxwell mumble, "I beg to differ." Finn ignored his younger brother, and only spoke a few more words before turning in for the night.

"I'm just helping out a couple of friends that really need it."

* * *

The next day, Finn went through school, thinking all about Leon, Rosa, and Z. Of course he did his work, but when he wasn't, he mainly thought about plans (whatever they would be) and fiddled around with his Stone. He was anxious to test it out again, but he knew better than to turn into something a lot of other people didn't know. The last thing he needed was for people to freak out when he was only trying to help the world. Finn had the gut instinct that Team Ascent was up to something, and it wasn't good. And he needed to be ready at a moment's notice.

When school was over, Finn and Maxwell walked home. Well, _Maxwell_ walked while Finn ran home. Even as the two brothers arrived at their small abode, Finn rushed in and went to his room, grabbing a few things before he began to walk out the front door. Maxwell noticed his brother's rush, and asked, "Where you going off to?"

"Uh…," Finn hesitated as he opened the door. "I'm going out with some friends, that's all…" Finn rushed out the door, closing it quickly.

"He doesn't have any friends, " Maxwell mumbled as he went to fix himself a glass of water. "At least, I don't think he does…" He walked back to the front window, and noticed that Finn was conversing with a black haired man, probably in his thirties, as both of them started to walk away at a quick pace. As soon as his brother and the mystery man disappeared, Maxwell muttered, "I _hope_ Finn's not doing anything with drugs now."

As Leon ran towards the abandoned warehouse, with Finn in his arms, he recalled a happy little memory from his childhood. He was a little Riolu then, playing around with his friends, an Eevee and a Shinx. They were in an orange-leaved forest, as it was fall, and were jumping in the piles of leaves the little Minccinos had cleaned up with their tails. One such Minccino expressed her opinion to the three boys, who didn't have a care in the world. " _You boys better stop messing up my piles or else,_ " She scoffed as she began to clean her tail, which had become entangled with the small sticks that she had swept aside.

" _But_ _we're_ _just_ _having_ _fun_!" Shinx laughed as Eevee popped up from another pile of leaves. " _We_ _just_ _want_ _to_ _live_ _a_ _little_ _before_ _we_ _get_ _old_!"

" _Well_ _you_ _better_ _live_ _for_ _now_ ," Minccino muttered as she continued to do her work. But the three friends continued to play, even as the other adults scolded them for being annoying. The Lucario smiled, wishing there were more memories like that. But that was one of the last happy memories he had of his childhood, or of his adult life.

"Hey Leon," The Lucario heard Finn's slurred voice, and stopped immediately. The real forest seemed to reflect the same qualities as the one in his memory, and smiled st the thought again. He sat the teen down with ease, giving him a look of concern. But all that came out of the 16 year old was, "Did we pass the warehouse?" Obviously the nausea was getting to him.

Leon looked around for a moment, and then nodded in agreement. He must have passed it when he was reliving the memory. Leon picked Finn back up quickly, and swiftly arrived at the warehouse in a matter of moments.

"Here we go," Leon mumbled as he let the teen slide out of his spiked arms. Finn sighed, and looked up at the older man with endearing eyes. On the outside, something seemed a bit different with the teen, but because the Lucario could sense other people's emotions, he could tell that Finn was attached to him. Even though Leon hadn't done much for the kid, he felt as though he were some father figure of some sorts. He disregarded the emotion quietly, and started walking towards the warehouse.

But as Finn headed inside the supposedly abandoned warehouse, Leon got the sense that that they weren't alone. His suspicions were correct when he heard a rustling in the nearby bushes, and a snicker that could be heard only by the Lucario. He leaned in, close to Finn's ear and whispered, "There's someone following us, but I need you to stay calm."

The boy nodded, tension building in his shoulders as he walked closer and closer towards the warehouse. Leon checked the bushes every few steps, attempting to find the hidden, and possibly potential ambusher. But he could only pick up Finn's fear seeping out from his aura, and grew larger the closer the two got to the warehouse. And right before the hidden ambusher sprang, Leon sensed it's aura, and tenses up as much as Finn was.

A Rhyperior appeared from the bushes, and tackled Leon with its great strength. Leon yelled, pinned underneath the Rhyperior's weight, and screamed, "Finn, run!"

"No!" Finn yelled, and ran towards the two Pokemon instead. His heart threatened to pound out of his chest, but Finn could only attempt to quell its violent activity. His mind was only focused on saving Leon, and the Rhyperior was only an obstacle. As Finn's courage grew stronger, so did the light surrounding his Stone. The light enveloped him quickly, transforming the former human into his Pokemon form. "Come at me bro!" He yelled as he charged against the Drill Pokemon, lighting up with poorly made sparks.

The Rhyperior growled in agitation as the ground shifted suddenly. The ground started to shake violently, and Finn fell to the forest floor quickly. A piece of rock jutted out from the earth, jabbing the skin on Finn's side. The Luxio fell on his other side, screaming in pain.

The Rhyperior snickered, and pressed a bit harder on Leon. The Lucario screams increased exponentially, firing up Finn's spark. The Luxio stood up, and headbutted the Rhyperior, yelling in pain even more as he fell over. " _God_ , why did I do that!?"

The Rhyperior chucked as it became surrounded by a dark light, and started to shift into something small and fox-like. Just like the Shifter Stone, the black light disappeared almost immediately, revealing the person Finn didn't want to see at the time.

"Z!" Finn yelled, clearly annoyed by the Illusion Pokemon's trick.

Z started laughing uncontrollably, and Leon sat up, as if he had never been hurt. " _Arceus_ , if that was a real-life situation, Leon would be as dead as a _Gastly_!"

"How was I supposed to know if it was real or not?!" Finn stormed up to Z, but felt a little awkward because of the 3-foot difference between the two rivals. Finn attempted to summon a shock attack, but it soon sputtered out due to the injured teen's pierced skin.

Leon studied the two rivals for a moment, and then said, "We need to get you to Rosa," and then walked in the direction towards the warehouse. The two teens glared at each other for a moment before following their mentor.

* * *

As soon as Rosa had taken care of Finn's injuries, Leon suggested that they train. Finn, of course, was a bit curious to see what Leon had to offer, but immediately freaked out after he figured out that Z would be his sparring partner. Z also shared his rival's shock as he yelled, "Oh, I'm going to hell."

Leon positioned his two warriors, and gave Finn a quick rundown on how to use his moves. A quick little scan of some foreign machine, probably nabbed by Z, and told Leon the four moves Finn had learned: Scratch, Headbutt, Thunderbolt, and Double Team. And as Finn trained more and more, he became more in tune with his abilities, and by the end of the day, could fire a small beam of electricity at a target. He had learned his first move, Charge Beam.

After Leon, Z and Finn finished training, Finn pulled out a small orange red device. He answered Z's questioned look with, "It's my brother's toy Pokedex. I guess it really works." And it really did. Finn wasn't sure when Maxwell had received the Pokemon Encyclopedia, but it was obviously made in good quality. So for the next few minutes, he researched the Luxio, who was the first stage in an evolutionary chain of blue and black lynx-like Pokemon. The first was Shinx, followed by Luxio, and ended with Luxray. He was fascinated with the look and x-ray vision ability that Luxrays had, and anticipated the day he would eventually evolve.

When the sun had started to set, Rosa started to make dinner for the Pokemon, and had even invited Finn to stay for it. The 16 year old ate almost as though he wouldn't live for tomorrow, while Z and Leon are with a more dignified posture. "And they say that _Pokemon_ _are_ _animals_ ," Z muttered under his breath, who then received an elbow to the stomach from Leon. As they ate, Finn started talking about some of the stuff he did outside of being with his new friends, while the others (minus Z, who didn't care anyway) listened in awe.

Finn checked his watch again, noticing that it was 7:49. He stood up and announced that he had to return home, and Leon went to join him. The branches of the trees slapped playfully at Finn as Leon ran through the forest, closely approaching the city. Leon rushed passed the slow moving cars, startling the few people that were out on the streets.

Leon dropped Finn off at his house, and said good night as the Aura Pokemon rushed off into the night. Finn sighed, and went back to the front door, almost feeling a sense of deja vu. He saw Maxwell's eyes peek through the window, but when the door opened, his mother wasn't standing there, waiting to smother her son. Her eyes were glued to the TV, as was Maxwell's.

"What's going on?" Finn asked cautiously, walking inside to see what it was. The news channel was on, shooting live footage of a building burning in the city. Helicopters surrounded it, searching for anyone that might have caused the building's demise. "Oh… crap…" Finn murmured, almost on the verge of cussing. He knew exactly who would burn a building like that. Because that building was the research facility for the mountain, where precious stones would be found and researched. And there was only one group he knew would have the audacity to do something like burning a building.

"Team Ascent."

* * *

 **A.N.: (collective gasp) UH OH! Could it be!? Team Ascent!? Is rising from the ashes of- I'm sorry, that pun was terrible. Just terrible.**

 **Anyway, things seem to be getting good now. Expect some action in the next chapter, because you know it's coming!**

 **As for the vote, I got the sense that a lot of people:**

 **A.) Couldn't find the poll. Or**

 **B.) Found it but didn't vote.**

 **But** **I** **will** **now** **reveal** **the** **results** **of** **the** **poll!**

 **Drumroll!**

 **Okay, you can stop. The total amount of votes was…. 1! Yes, one. And it wasn't me. So shoutout to the one person who decided to vote, because you chose the title I was originally going to go with.**

 **As of now, this fanfic is now called : The Shifter Stones!**

 **Yay! Other than that, I have one more announcement. Since school is back in session, it'll take a few days to get a new chapter posted, so DON'T BAIL ON ME!**

 **One question, though, to my fellow writers: do you guys know how to upload a cover image? Because the system doesn't seem to like my phone too much... you can PM me if you want to answer.**

 **Happy (late) New Years, because I personally fell asleep at 10… Wah-wah.**

 **Anyways, I will see you guys in the next chapter! Well, not _in_ the next chapter, because that would be a bit weird. Syntax isn't exactly my forte...**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Team Ascent. The evil Pokemon group was the only reason why the mountain research facility would be on fire. Finn could already take a stab at what they were after; there must have been some Shifter Stones that made it there, and Team Ascent wanted them for their own.

Finn started to sweat profusely as he went to go outside. "I'm going for a walk," he said nervously, and slipped outside. Maxwell and Viola didn't answer him at all; their eyes were still glued to the TV.

Finn ran towards the flaming building, which was at least halfway across the city. Of course, Finn wasn't much of a runner, as he sprinted for very short distances, and had stopped after a few minutes to catch his breath. He heard the sound of wind howling loudly, and saw a dark blue streak headed towards him. The teen dodged it quickly, thinking that he would have been tackled by it if he hadn't. But the blue streak stopped right in front of the teen, and in its place was Leon and Z.

"Hey," Z muttered casually, acting as though nothing was wrong. He leaned an elbow on Leon's shoulder, quietly snacking on a bag of cookies he had snatched from a vending machine. "How's it going, Sparky?"

"I don't like that name," Finn scoffed as he watched Z toss another cookie into his mouth. He was tempted to snatch away the rest of the bag, but he knew better than to mess with a Pokemon that already hated him.

"We need to get to that facility," Leon spoke softly, gazing towards the building of flames. It was only a few blocks away, but the Aura Pokemon knew better than to Extremespeed his way over there. He reached out in his mind towards the building, finding dozens of auras filled with a menacing purpose. "Team Ascent is here, and we need to recover those Stones before they get into the wrong hands. Right, Finn?"

The 16 year old gave Leon a confused look, and almost spoke when the Lucario started to walk towards the building. " _Oh_ - _kay_ , _I_ _guess_ _he_ _can_ _read_ _minds_ _too_ ," Finn thought to himself as he followed his mentor.

"Kind of," Leon answered from the head of the group, stopping to run into an alleyway. Z and Finn went after him, leaning against the wall as the sound of boots came closer. Finn had a good view from where they were hidden, and soon saw a group of about twenty men run past, clothed in hideous looking grey jumpsuits, tall black boots with metal buckles, black gloves, and a belt the held at least two small Pokeballs around the waist. Finn was able to catch a glance of the Team's logo, which was a stylish 'A' made from a green dragon twisting around. Little dots, which were probably stars, covered the rest of the area around the 'A', shining irregularly in the flickering light. But the group of Ascent members disappeared as quickly as they appeared, and the three Pokemon sighed with relief.

"Let's go," Z said triumphantly, walking towards the building. He tossed the empty bag of cookies in a trash can, and smiled as he headed into the building. Finn and Leon followed after him, looking around more carefully than the Zoroark. The first floor was the lobby, and was decorated with extravagant chairs and couches, paintings, and a small little Christmas tree that was placed on the receptionist's desk. The second floor started to look more like a research facility, with machines and desks littering the floor, and boxes of papers were slowly being burned away by the fire. Even though the building was in flames, the non-burnt part was eerily quiet, making Finn's skin crawl with fright. Leon didn't seem to be paying attention, as he seemed to be staring deeply at something above them. Finn dismissed the thought that Leon was once again in Finn's mind in favor of him actually searching for Ascent members.

Something broke the silence from the floor above them, making the small group stop for a moment. There were at least two people above them, arguing excessively.

"Why did you break that freakin' vase?!" One of the two asked. He sounded young, or at least Leon thought.

"It wasn't me, that was _you_!" The other voice whined. It was a girl, probably the same age as the other member.

"Do you _not_ pay attention?" The boy huffed. "I _clearly_ saw you bump into that table and knock it over!"

"Why does it matter?" The girl countered as the three Pokemon arrived on their floor. The three hid behind a wall, still listening the two's bickering. " _You_ were the one who almost burned down the Boss' office!"

"That wasn't me!"

"Now you know how _I_ feel!"

"Good grief," Z muttered quietly, rubbing his temples. "I'm about to go psycho on these kids." He walked out from his hiding place, a dark light starting to surround him. The light disappeared as the form of one of an Ascent Grunt took the place of Z. Z walked towards the two bickering Grunts, muttering, "The Boss needs you."

"Really?" The boy asked, tilting his head slightly.

"The Boss never asks for us," The girl countered quickly. "What makes you, a Grunt, able to bully us into running out of here?"

"Uh…" Z thought for a moment, trying to think of an excuse. But the girl noticed Z stumble for an answer, and pulled out a Pokeball.

"Hey, I don't know who you are, but I _know_ _for_ _a_ _fact_ that you aren't with Team Ascent! Let's go, Gyarados!" She yelled as she threw her Pokeball into the air, releasing the large blue leviathan. It roared, racing towards its opponent.

"I need you, Sparky!" Z called, bracing for an attack. Finn poked his head out from behind the wall, and shivered with fear when he saw the Atrocious Pokemon.

"Why?" Finn yelled back, watching as Z dodged Gyarados' strong Hydro Pump. Z changed back into his Zoroark form, and started to slash his opponent with a barrage of Shadow Claws. The girl was astounded by the Zoroark's change of appearance, but was still paying attention to the battle. The boy was only watching the battle, not wanting to get into any trouble.

"Alicia, should we be doing this?" The boy said, rubbing his spiked green hair to shake off a few pieces of ceiling that had fallen on him as of a result of the battle. Leon searched the boy's thoughts, and found out something that interested him very much. The Lucario stepped out from behind the wall, ushering Finn to do the same. The Luxio stood timidly behind his mentor, attempting to figure out what he was up to.

Leon's paws slapped together, creating a sphere of blue light. It launched itself after building up for a moment, and headed straight towards the Gyarados. It hit it head on, and fainted from the Aura Sphere.

The girl, known as Alicia, stared at the Lucario before returning her Pokemon. "How did you defeat my Gyarados with a Fighting Type move?!"

The Lucario didn't answer, but looked at Z. The Zoroark nodded, and then shifted into a Spiritomb. He then emitted a pinkish-purple psywave, which made Finn feel a bit sleepy. The beam hit the boy and Alicia, making them fall to the ground. Finn was about to panic, thinking that Z had hurt them, but Finn looked at the two again. They were _asleep_.

" _Pokemon_ _are_ _mysterious_ , _so_ _I_ _guess_ _there's_ _a_ _move_ _that_ _makes_ _people_ _fall_ _asleep_ ," Finn thought, feeling something weird going through his mind. He dismissed the feeling, and started to follow Leon and Z towards the next set of stairs.

"Hypnosis," Leon mumbled randomly. Finn was once again confused by the Lucario's random outburst, but then he remembered that the Aura Pokemon could read minds, sense emotions and auras or something like that.

" _That_ _might_ _be_ _why_ _I_ _had_ _that_ _weird_ _feeling_ _in_ _my_ _head_. _It_ _must_ _be_ _him_ _reading_ _me_."

Z, Finn and Leon ascended up the flight of stairs, finding nothing on the fourth floor. But there were more voices to be heard on the floor above them. Leon scanned the ceiling, counting at least a dozen auras from the floor above them, all of them emanating an itching impatience for something. There was the sound of shattering glass, and a round of applause from the group, only to be hushed by the ringleader.

The three Pokemon arrived on the fifth floor, and hid underneath a desk right by the stairs. Because of their excellent hearing, all three Pokemon were easily able to hear the conversation between the Ascent members.

"Finally, the Stones!"

"Yes!" Multiple people cheered.

"When we get back to base, we can inform the Boss that we found 'em."

Z decided to finally do something instead of eavesdropping. He wasn't one for waiting, so he stood up to face the dozen men. Only one man noticed him, and told the others with a shrill, "Someone's here!" The men in the grey jumpsuits stared at the Zoroark for a moment before they separated, leaving one man in the middle by himself. A quick scan from Leon told him that this man was the ringleader, and he was not one to be messed with.

"Damn, I told you to shut up!" The leader yelled to the Grunts, who seemed to shrink from embarrassment. The leader fixed his hair for a moment before he continued. "I hate it when plans are messed up. I guess I'll just have to kill this freaking Zoroark." The man withdrew a Pokeball and tossed it casually, mumbling, "I hope you want to play, Sableye."

Finn's face lit up with recognition as he stuttered, " It-I-it's that guy from the alley!" Unfortunately for the two hiding Pokemon, Finn spoke a bit too loud, drawing them out from their hiding place.

The leader scoffed. "Why can't people ever get my name? It's Lawrence!"

"Uh, is it because you're a pushover?" Z offered as the leader's Sableye got ready for round two.

" _Okay_ , you're going down!" Lawrence yelled as he commanded, "Power Gem!" The Sableye's Rock Type move did little damage to Z, who in turn attacked with a Shadow Claw. Because of the Sableye's typing, the Shadow Claw did nothing.

Z's body glowed black again, and he turned into a Sylveon instead. He launched a pink ball of light from his streamer things, and hit the Sableye directly. The Darkness Pokemon was knocked back, but wasn't knocked out from the attack. The two kept on attacking each other as the Grunts started to run out of the building, under Lawrence's command. And after a few lucky hits, the Admin's Sableye had fainted from battle.

"Hey, all I did was keep you busy while we were doing our real mission," Lawrence smiled as he returned his Pokemon. "We at Team Ascent will do all we can to keep you at bay, and until our mission is accomplished, we will do just that." The Admin pushed past the three Pokemon, and ran down the stairs to join with his Grunts.

Z stared at Leon with an annoyed face, and yelled, "Why did we let him go? We could have _pounded_ him!"

"Because this isn't the real reason we came here today," Leon smiled, and walked towards the broken glass case that used to hold the Stones. He scanned the cases for a moment before he bent over, and started messing with the lock that was underneath it. The lock popped open easily, under Leon's strength, and two little Stones rolled into the Lucario's paws. He held them up and said, "Now we can go."

The three Pokemon carefully walked down the stairs, watching out for the flames that were growing by the second. When the three got down to the third floor, Finn noticed that the two kids from earlier were still asleep from Z's Hypnosis. The smoke in the building was starting to mess with Finn's breathing, and said, "We need to get these kids out of here. If they stay any longer, they'll die from smoke inhalation!"

"Why?" Z snapped. "They're just annoying kids that probably _deserve_ to die."

"Well, _you_ can leave them, but _I_ won't." Finn tried to pick the two Grunts, but it was hard to do it since he was in his Luxio form. He was about to revert back to his human form when Leon offered to pick them up. The Lucario smiled again as he raised the two, and started to walk towards the stairs when the ceiling crumpled above them.

Chairs and desks headed towards them, but Leon was quick enough to move all five of the people there before they were hurt. More heavier objects landed on the floor, and the floor underneath them gave way too. This time, though, the Lucario wasn't able to save all of them in enough time, and Z and Finn fell to the ground floor. More machines and chunks of building fell on top of the two, burying them completely. Leon rushed down the stairs as soon as the debris had stopped falling. He sat the two Grunts away from the pile and hurriedly dug through the rubble, half expecting to see the two teens dead. He found them, and pulled them both out from the rubble and laid them out. He stared at their closed eyes, hoping that they weren't dead. He watched them for a minute, and then went to check for a pulse. Z's was dull, and his heart was about to quit on itself. Finn's though, was silent.

Leon heard something hissing, and turned around to see what the noise was. A strong blast of water was attacking the fire, extinguishing them flame by flame. At first Leon thought it was Water Pokemon putting it out, but it was actually human firefighters. With a sigh of relief, Leon stepped out of the building and greeted the men with a nod.

"What the _hell_ is _that_?" One of the firefighters asked.

"Beats me," another answered, "But it looks like it saved some people!" The man pulled out a walkie talkie and called for an ambulance. He and the other man took the two Ascent Grunts and hauled them towards the approaching ambulance.

Leon took advantage of that, and returned inside to collect Finn and Z. The Lucario nodded again to the firefighters, who were still baffled by the strange creature's appearance. But Leon wasn't in the mood to explain himself. All he did was run off in a bright blue streak towards the warehouse.

" _God_ , Chief is gonna be confused as _hell_ when we tell him about that!"

"Yep."

* * *

Leon rushed the two teens to Rosa as fast as he could, and deposited them in her care as he went to take care of himself. Even though the Lucario hadn't been physically hurt, something in that building had made his emotions become blinded. And luckily he knew what it was, and took care of it before he regretted it.

"Oh, _Arceus_ ," Z muttered as he sat up. Rosa smiled, knowing that he was okay. Z's thoughts flooded back into his head, and he said to Leon, "It's a good thing we got those Stones, right Leon?"

Leon stared at the Zoroark intensively. The Lucario sorted through Z's emotions, spotting confidence flare up in the young man. But as the moments grew longer, confusion took the place of the confidence. Z tilted his head slightly. "What happened to the Stones?"

Leon took a moment before he responded. "I put them in a safe place, where they'll be put to good use." Leon crossed his arms, making sure he didn't cut himself with the sharp spikes on the top of his paws. "I think they'll be helpful soon."

Z arched his eyebrows, showing a look of concern.

"Who has them?"

* * *

 **A.N.: Chapter 6 is completed! I feel right when I say that everyone is asking, "Where are the Stones?" I know Z is.**

 **In** **other** **news** , **I'd** **really** **like** **it** **if** **more** **people** **would** **either** **PM** **me** **or** **review** **the** **story** , **because** **I** **really** **want** **to** **get** **other** **people's** **opinions**. **While** **it** **may** **not** **seem** **like** **a** **lot** , **it** **really** **helps** **me** **know** **what's** **good** **and** **what** **needs** **to** **be** **worked** **on**. **The** **only** **review** **that's** **kinda** **like** **that** **was** **the** **one** **I** **got** **in** **the** **prologue**. **And** **now** **I'm** **here** , **so** **I** **would** **really** **appreciate** **it.**

 **Sooo… Chapter 7 is next! What is Team Ascent up to? What's their mission? We shall find out soon!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

One of the doctors stood at the foot of the hospital bed, watching the machine next to it. Dr. Rachel was on call when the research facility had caught on fire, and had received two patients that were put under her care. A quick DNA test from the two children revealed that they were twins, but there was no information as to who they were. When she looked in the identification system, nothing pulled up for either of them.

But now she was checking up on the boy. He seemed fine; he was just asleep. The girl was awake, and it seemed like she would be the more rambunctious of the two. Although the two seemed to be of the same age, the girl seemed like she was the boss, while the boy seemed to be more of the quiet type.

"Good Arceus, where am I?!" Dr. Rachel heard the girl yell from the room next door. She sighed, and then sat the clipboard she was holding on the little table next to the bed. The doctor swiftly walked over to the girl's room, and immediately saw the blue haired girl in a fit of rage. The girl was thrashing about, attempting to escape from the IV in her arm. "If I ever get back to Ascent, I'm getting my Gyarados on all of you!"

"Okay," Dr. Rachel said apprehensively, and moved towards the monitor in the room. She unhooked the IV from the girl's arm, and said, "Well, I think you're good to go, but if you could please tell me your name, that would be great."

"Okay, Nurse Joy look-a-like," The girl muttered. "It's Alicia." She crossed her arms, but recoiled from the pain where the IV used to be. "And if you'll excuse me, I'll be getting my brother and we'll get out of this creepy place."

"About that," Dr. Rachel said with a raised finger. "Your brother isn't conscious, and it might not be a good idea to take him home in the event that he's not okay."

"Not okay," Alicia scoffed. She wasn't wearing her Ascent jumpsuit, so that meant that her Gyarados wasn't with her. "Great," She thought to herself. "He'll be fine. He's my brother." She walked out of the room, and headed towards her brother's room.

"Alicia, you shouldn't go out of your room!" Dr. Rachel said as she followed the girl into the other room. But the feisty girl didn't listen. Instead, she walked in the room. She stared at the unconscious green-haired boy for a moment, tears building up in her eyes. Alicia walked towards her brother, and wrapped her arms around him carefully. The tears started to stream down her face, but she wiped them off before the doctor noticed them.

"Oh, Alexo, it's a pain without you," She said quietly. "You better not be dead."

And as if the boy could hear her, the pulse line on the monitor started to beep faster, getting up to par. The boy took a small breath, and opened his eyes slowly.

"Alicia?"

Alicia smiled in a moment of pure joy and happiness, but then reverted back to a straight face after that. "I'm glad you're not dead."

"Thanks," Alexo said quietly. "I'm glad you actually seem to care about me."

"No, I don't," She muttered. "I only missed you because I would have no one to argue with."

Dr. Rachel laughed for a moment before Alicia gave her a death stare. But the doctor enjoyed moments like these, where loved ones were joined back together. She watched the two talk to each other for a minute before she remembered something. She walked out of the room and returned with a small bin of items. "These were found with you when you got to the hospital," Dr. Rachel mentioned as she handed the bin to Alicia.

The twins looked through the bin quickly, and both were thrilled to find that most of their items had been returned to them (with the exception of Alicia's Gyarados). But what puzzled them the most were two little stones that glinted in the light in the room.

"What are these?" Alexo asked, examining the small clear stone underneath a light.

"They were with you when that _thing_ gave you two to the ambulance." Dr. Rachel responded.

" _What_ _thing_?" Alicia asked, a bit of tension building up in her voice.

"Well," Dr. Rachel flipped through her clipboard for a moment and showed the twins a picture of a blue and black bipedal dog.

Alicia studied the picture for a moment before muttering, "It's that Lucario that took out my Gyarados." She stood up quickly and almost dragged her brother out of the hospital bed, and headed for the door. "Come on, we're leaving."

"Wait!" Alexo wriggled out from Alicia's grasp. He stood up and brushed himself off. "What's going on?"

"We're going."

* * *

"You did _what_?!" Z yelled at Leon. The 17 year old didn't usually do that, unless there was a good reason for it. Yeah, he was the jerky type, but he still respected the Lucario somewhat. "Don't you think that those kids are gonna go back to Ascent and give it to their Boss?"

"I don't think so," Leon responded with a distant tone. "The boy's very interested in the Stones, and the girl wouldn't let anyone take them away from her brother when he is like that."

"Okay, that was helpful." Z said bluntly. "So you think that they're gonna-"

"I think so," Leon interrupted as he stood up. He started to walk out of the warehouse. He stopped at the entrance and turned back towards Z. "And I need to be there for them when it happens."

Leon rushed towards the hospital in the city, stopping right before the sliding glass doors. He decided to shift to his human form in order to get a better response. He walked in, passing the groups of people talking, and headed towards the receptionist desk.

"Hello, sir," a young woman smiled as she fixed her glasses. She grabbed a few stacks of paper before stapling them and handing them to a passing employee. She turned back to Leon and said, "Is there someone you're here to see?"

"Yes," Leon answered quietly. "I'm here to see two children that came in last night. A green haired boy and a blue haired girl."

"Oh yes, those two," the receptionist smiled as she glanced over at her computer for a moment. "Those two were a bit weird, if you ask me. No parents, it seems…"

"That's the thing," Leon took advantage of his opportunity. "I'm their… uh… father."

"Oh that's great!" The receptionist beamed with delight. "I've heard that they're good to go, so I'll get them called down soon. If you don't mind, you can sit over there by the elevator." She said, pointing towards the dozens of chairs there.

"Thank you, even though I'm not much of a sitter." Leon stood by the elevator, waiting for the twins to come back. He scanned the hospital with his aura, and found mostly happiness, with some hints of pain and agony from certain ones. But soon enough he found the ones that belonged to the twins. Alicia's aura was filled with apprehension, while Alexo's was riddled with worry for his sister. The two were coming down the elevator now, and were about to-

The elevator door opened suddenly, which made Leon snap back into the real world. There were only two people standing in there: Alexo and Alicia.

Alicia's face said it all. She saw Leon, and immediately started pressing random buttons on the elevator panel. "Oh, _Arceus_ no!" She yelled as she tried to close the door on the disguised Lucario. "Not today!"

"Please stop," Alexo attempted to reason with his sister, but it was to no avail. Alicia was getting to the point of screaming just so then she could get Leon away from them.

"You need to know something," Leon gazed into the twins eyes. "You need to know, whether you like it or not."

Alicia thought to herself for a moment, and then stopped struggling. "What do you want?" She asked bluntly.

"I can't tell you in public, but if you come with me, I'll be able to tell you."

Alicia took another moment to think of an answer, and said, "Where to?"

* * *

"Are you fucking _insane_?!"

"Calm down, Z. You're not going to die," Leon mumbled.

"No, I'm serious. You've now brung two Ascent Grunts to our place, and you seem to be completely fine about it." Z started pacing around the room. "No problem with _that_."

"Okay, dude," Alicia stood up to face Z. "If you think you're gonna boss me and my brother around, you've got another thing coming to you. And I still haven't forgiven you with the Hypnosis attack."

I don't expect you to," Z replied. "I didn't care whether or not it killed you."

"Can we _please_ not argue?" Alexo attempted to break up the rivalry between the two. "It's already bad that we've been kicked to the curb by Ascent, but this isn't going to be helpful if we decide to help you out."

"Yeah," Alicia agreed. She couldn't think of anything else to say, so she just said "that."

"Okay, I'm not gonna leave a comment on that," Z mumbled.

"So have you made your mind?" Leon asked almost interrogatively. He didn't want to seem too pushy, but there was definitely a need for them.

"So you're saying that you'll let us join your little group? No strings attached?" Alicia asked. "I mean, if I can turn into a Pokemon with this Stone, then _damn_ , I'm gonna join."

"I'll help, so then I can keep her straight." Alexo agreed.

"It's set then. You are a Shifter now." Leon smiled.

"Since when was there a name for someone that had a Shifter Stone?" Z asked, although Leon didn't answer. Instead, their attention was turned to Rosa as she came in with a status report for Finn.

"I think I've got all of the toxins out," the Roserade said calmly. "I think he'll wake up in a few hours."

"That's great, Rosa," Leon smiled. "I'll keep a watch on him if you're willing to take these two somewhere where they can get some clothes."

"Yep, they'll need it," Z coughed, as if he was trying to conceal his comment. Alicia's reaction was to go and slap him on the back of his head.

"Yeah, I'll go get some clothes. Some that look better than what you have! Including that messed up looking _jacket_!" Alicia grabbed her brother's hand and dragged him out of the warehouse.

"It's okay," Leon handed Rosa a wad of bills. "Z got these when we first got here."

"I figured," Rosa accepted the gift. "I think we'll be back in a few hours." She followed the twins out of the warehouse, and headed towards the city. Leon and Z stared at each other for a moment, and then Z went out to train himself.

Leon looked back at the unconscious Finn, and mumbled, "You're an essential part of the team, you know. You're the spark. The light that guides the team through the darkness." He stopped for a moment before continuing. "Let's just hope that that darkness never comes."

* * *

 **A.N.: Two new members of the team have been added: Alicia and Alexo! Yay! It was about time! Since their Pokemon forms have not been revealed yet, it would be pretty cool is some people guessed what they would be. PMing me would be cool, because I love opinions!**

 **Otherwise, it was nice to see you guys, and i hope you can't wait for the next time! As usual, please review, because I NEED TO KNOW! :)**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Alexo followed his sister and Rosa through a vast shopping mall, attempting to find some clothes that were just 'him'. Of course, Alicia seemed to try on everything, but there was not a single thing that the 12 year old liked.

"You'll find something," Rosa commented. "We have all day, so there's no need to worry."

"I'm not worrying," Alexo muttered. "I just don't want Alicia to spend all of the money."

"She won't." Rosa turned to Alicia, who was already about to pay for another outfit. "Alicia, you have to think about your brother!"

"Why?" Alicia countered, glaring at Alexo. "At least I _have_ something!"

"No comment," Alexo mumbled.

And for the next few hours, Alexo _still_ didn't find anything. " _I'm pretty sure that I've looked around the whole mall, and I_ still _haven't found anything. Mom would be ashamed."_ He sighed at the thought of his fashion-frenzied mother.

He ended up asking for Alicia's advice, and she said, "Sure. What about that?" She pointed to an outfit in one of the stores across from them. Alexo's eyes began to sparkle as he nodded his head. He walked toward the store, and tried the outfit on. "Oh Arceus, he's doing the thing again." Alicia muttered to the disguised Roserade.

Alexo stepped out of the fitting room, and paid for his outfit. He ran towards the restroom to put it on. Better to wear _that_ than the crappy clothes the hospital gave him. When the 12 year old came out, he was wearing a classy green jacket with a green and white striped T-Shirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers. He wore a grin as he showed off his new outfit to his sister, who scoffed, "You need some help."

"At least I didn't buy up the whole store," Alexo smiled as he skipped throughout the mall.

* * *

 _Swirling emotions pounded him as he watched the scene continue. It was daytime. Or, at least, it was daytime in the dream. Hordes of men stormed a large building, wearing grey jumpsuits. They were holding people hostage, with Pokemon and guns._

 _The dream shifted to night, where man-made lights scattered the forest. A path around a giant tree was made by the lights, and it seemed as though the lights were… possessed._

 _Another large building flew by in his mind, and many other things that were going by too fast to keep track of. But the most prominent thing he saw was a scene where dark clouds filled the sky, and lightning struck the ground with an intense ferocity the boy had never seen before. And right before he woke up, something green could be seen, descending from the clouds._

* * *

Lawrence paced around the building feverishly, waiting for a reply to come back. He had sent two of his Grunts in the shopping mall to see what kind of security was in the place, and he had hoped that it would be diminished quickly.

The walkie talkie around his waist started to buzz, and he pulled it out quickly and held it to his mouth. "Yes?"

"Uh, the place doesn't look that tight," The person on the other end said. "I think we'll be fine."

"Good," Lawrence smiled devilishly. "Go ahead and start."

* * *

Finn awoke, startling Leon. The Lucario walked to Finn's side, and made sure he was okay. The 16 year old realized that it was already daytime, and he feverishly asked, "What time is it?"

The Lucario looked towards the sun, and said, "About noon. You were asleep for the night."

"It's Wednesday," Finn rubbed his temples, trying to think. It took him a while to get used to being awake, and he added, "I'm sorry, I've had this bad dream and…"

Finn trailed off, and Leon asked, "And what?"

"Where are the others?"

"Z's training and Rosa's at the shopping mall with two new members," Leon disclosed.

"Oh no," Finn covered his mouth. With the things he had pieced together, it seemed as though the large building that was being raided was the mall. He stood up and started to go out of the warehouse. "We need to get there as fast as we can."

Leon sensed Finn's stress, and immediately picked the teen up, and rushed towards the city.

* * *

Alexo had felt something tremble under his feet, but he didn't think anything of it. When the fire alarms went off, he didn't worry because someone on the speakers said that everything was fine and that it was just a system malfunction. But he knew better than to underestimate Team Ascent. And because of that underestimation, he was now stuck in a back room with a Tyranitar watching his every move.

"Well crap," He muttered, as the Tyranitar went to attack him. Something around it's neck beeped, though, and prevented it from attacking. "This day went great, huh?" Alexo asked the Tyranitar.

"Tar!" The Tyranitar growled threateningly.

"I'm sorry," Alexo smiled. "It doesn't help that you're trapped too, huh?"

The Tyranitar nodded. It walked next to the 12 year old, and sat down. Alexo went to pet it's head, but the Tyranitar jerked away before Alexo's hand could make contact.

"I bet you had a good owner before you got stolen by these guys," Alexo stood up and began to pace around. "If only we could get out of here, I'd help you get away from them."

The Tyranitar's head perked up at that suggestion, and went to cuddle him vigorously. "Ty!" The Tyranitar almost seemed to smile as the 12 year old attempted to kick the door.

Alexo turned around, and started to fiddle around with the machine around the Tyranitar's neck. "I bet that they control you with this." Alexo smiled as he popped off the restraining device with ease. "It's a good thing I dabble in machinery."

The Tyranitar didn't seem to know what to do next. It looked around, trying to figure out the dilemma. But it eventually Hyper Beamed down the door, and Alexo smiled.

"We're gonna have some fun."

* * *

Rosa and Alicia were hiding in one of the stores that had not been raided by the Ascent Grunts. Alicia wasn't sure why Ascent was there, but she knew it had to do with-

"We need to go." Rosa interrupted Alicia's train of thought.

"Why? We can fight these guys!"

"I'm too old to fight, and you've never Shifted before. It's too much of a risk." The disguised Roserade started to walk towards a back door, but Alicia continued.

"So you're going to just let these people stay here with these guys? In the time that I've been in Ascent, I've learned _nothing_ about teamwork. It's always 'doing things better by yourself'. But you guys seem to be all about teamwork, and it makes me feel like I'm actually wanted. I joined because I wanted to make a difference, instead of messing everything up. So if you want to give up, that's fine. But I'm going to help these people, because they need it."

Rosa stopped, and waited a moment before turning around. She wore a soft smile on her face as she said, "I'm glad you passed."

"Huh?" Alicia tilted her head slightly.

"That was a test to see how you would react," Rosa began to Shift into her Roserade form. "It wasn't my idea, though. It was Z's."

"That jerk," Alicia muttered. "I hope he-"

"Remember, though, that you have to work as a team. Finn and Z also seem to have a rivalry going on, but we need to work together to overcome Ascent."

"Right," Alicia replied, a bit of tension in her voice. Ascent was going down. But they definitely weren't going down without a fight. She had seen the plans, and it was not going to be good for Earth. "Let's go," She said, jogging out of the store.

* * *

"Here," Finn said, and Leon stopped immediately. They stood in front of the city's mall, and it was obvious that there was something wrong. Screams were coming from inside, and a faint smell of smoke hung in the air. Leon and Finn Shifted to their Pokemon forms and looked around before heading inside.

"It doesn't seem like anyone's here," Finn mumbled as he stepped over shards of glass.

"That's what they want us to think," Leon replied, as he searched an empty jewel shop. Unfortunately there wasn't anything of the Lucario's interest, so he continued. Finn found the Dunkin' Donuts shop, and had already started to help himself to some of the doughnuts there. Leon sighed, and made sure the hungry teen didn't leave his sight as he searched some more. For minutes, he searched, but came up with nothing.

Something snapped from down the main walkway, and Leon turned his head to see what it was. A blonde haired woman stood with about a dozen jumpsuit-clad people discussed what they would do next. The Grunts were of no interest to the Lucario, but the woman definitely sparked something in him. He knew that the woman was evil (there was no doubt about that), but the strings of deja vu kept on pulling on Leon's mind. There was something… familiar… about her.

"Are any of the Shifters here yet?" The woman asked, facing one of the Grunts.

"Not yet, ma'am, but we found a boy wearing one of the Stones." The Grunt answered.

" _That must be Alexo,"_ Leon thought.

"Where is he?" The woman said threateningly.

"He's in one of the back rooms in one of the larger stores, being watched by a Tyranitar," the Grunt attempted to say cooly. "It doesn't seem like he knows how to work the Stone, though."

"Thank Arceus," the woman muttered sarcastically. "I needed to send out a group to search the perimeter anyway."

She sent out a Glalie, and shooed a batch of the Grunts away. She sighed, and then told the Glalie to search. "Glalie." The Face Pokemon wandered off, doing as it's master told it.

"Come on, Finn," Leon pulled the Luxio out from a pile of doughnuts and walked him away from the Glalie.

"What happened?" Finn asked, stuffing yet another doughnut into his mouth.

Leon almost facepalmed, but he refrained from doing so. "It's going to be hard to get through here without any backup," He mumbled. "But as long as you're willing to fight, I feel like you could dish out a lot of damage."

Finn took a moment to finish his doughnut, and then switched to his serious face. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Then let's light these guys up."

* * *

Alexo and the Tyranitar rushed out of the back room, and ambled through the main hallway. It sounded like there was some sort of commotion at the other end of the mall, so the two decided that it might be best to go there. "If anything, you're really strong, and I have some friends that might help us." Alexo reasoned.

The Tyranitar nodded, and then took the lead. They inched closer and closer towards the Ascent members, and the Tyranitar had to hide behind a wall in order for it to not be seen. Alexo was underneath a stack of boxes, listening to the Grunts' conversation.

"I hope Lady Clarissa doesn't try to freeze us again," One Grunt moaned. "I was stuck like a Popsicle for a week the last time she got angry."

"And that Glalie of her's is already bad enough, but when it's _Mega Evolved_ …" Another Grunt shivered.

"I'm glad that some of us have some Fire types on us," A third sounded.

"And then some _don't_ ," A fourth retorted.

"At least I can get some of us out of a cold mess," The third countered. The third and fourth Grunts started bickering with each other, and it was obvious that it was getting on the Tyranitar's nerves. But the Armor Pokemon kept it's cool, and it watched the group carefully, making sure that it's new friend wasn't discovered.

Alexo noticed something black lying on the ground, and went to pick it up. But as his hand reached out towards it, his foot folded up, and knocked over the stacks of boxes he was hiding behind. The Grunts turned around to see what had knocked over the boxes, and almost freaked out when they saw the 12 year old.

"It's the kid!" One of the Grunts yelled, and drew out his Pokeball. "He's supposed to be locked up with that Tyranitar!"

As if on cue, the Tyranitar stepped out from behind the wall, and watched the four Grunts toss out their weak Pokemon. The Armor Pokemon easily defeated them all with a single Rock Tomb, and turned back towards the men. The Tyranitar whacked them on the head with a stick, making sure that they wouldn't be grievously injured.

"Thanks, Tyranitar," Alexo looked up at the Rock/Dark Type with a smile. Their happiness was shared for only a moment before a walkie talkie on one of the Grunt's belts buzzed.

"Hey, there, what's goin' on?" A man asked through the other end. "It kinda sounded like somethin' was goin' down over there…"

Alexo unclipped the walkie talkie quickly and held it to his mouth. "Uh, everything's fine," He said in a deep voice. "Nothing wrong here…"

"Huh," The man on the other end thought for a moment. "Evans, is that you?"

"Uh… yeah…" Alexo's face went pale. "I'm telling you, everything's fine!"

"Are you okay? We can send down a support team if you need it."

"No!" Alexo yelled. He realized his mistake a bit too late, and was unable to fix it.

"Lady Clarissa, somethins' goin' down in Sector 3. Ima go check it out." Alexo heard a woman groan, and then she spoke in a soft voice.

"I needed to send out a group to search the perimeter anyway."

"Oh crap," Alexo threw the walkie across the hallway, making it shatter into pieces. "We gotta get out of here."

The Tyranitar nodded, and then preceded to head towards the source of the problem.

* * *

Alicia was right near a group of Grunts, as well as a blonde haired woman that seemed to be in charge. She was hiding in one of the empty stores, watching Ascent's every movement. It seemed as though the woman had sent a Glalie, and made it search around. The Glalie wasn't much of a searching Pokemon, in Alicia's mind, but in the event that it just so happened to find something, it would be able to freeze it before the found thing could do anything.

"I know you're here," The blonde haired woman said suddenly, almost making Alicia fall over. She fixed herself straight, and then listened again to the woman's monologue. "I know that the Shifters are bound to be here. It's just a matter of time before they come."

" _They're here, alright,"_ Alicia thought to herself.

Something fell over at the doughnut shop, and the Glalie floated over towards it. After a moment's inspection, it wandered off again, disinterested. Alicia sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. She knew that the Lucario was here, and probably with that annoying Zoroark, but she was happy to be on the good guy's side for once.

She felt as though someone was watching her, so she naturally turned around to see if her suspicions were true. And there _was_ someone there; it was Leon, and a Luxio was standing by his side.

"Jeez, you scared me!" She whispered harshly as she looked in the Lucario's red eyes. But her eyes looked down with a soft sincerity as she saw the Luxio. "You're _so cute_!" She smiled as she began to rub the hair around the Spark Pokemon.

"Don't touch me," He muttered, swatting the 14 year old's hand away with his paw.

"Attitude," She mumbled. "But at least you're pretty cute."

"I highly doubt it," The Luxio looked at the floor quickly, avoiding Alicia's blue eyes.

"Aw, and he's _modest_!"

"Leon, can't you do something about this?" The Luxio looked at his mentor with pleading eyes.

The Lucario thought for a moment before whispering, "Where's Rosa and Alexo?"

"Rosa's doing some recon for some reason," Alicia replied. "And Alexo's been taken."

The Lucario winced. "We're down one, then. We need to stop these people before they find something. Alicia, do you know how to Shift to your Pokemon form?" The blue haired shook her head, and then Leon explained, "Just think about it."

"That's not exactly helpful," Alicia muttered. It sounded kind of stupid, but she did as she was told. Soon, a white light surrounded her, and began to shrink. She grew fluffy little wings, a white beak, and little white talons. After the light disappeared, the 14 year old looked at herself in a mirror. She chuckled, saying, "A Swablu. Cute." She turned to the Luxio, smiling, "Do you think I'm cute in this form?"

The Luxio didn't answer, because he wasn't paying attention to her. Instead, his ears were tuned in to the Ascent member's conversation. In the time that Alicia was transforming, a Grunt had noticed the white light, and had told the blonde haired woman about it. "We're in trouble," The Luxio muttered, who then went into a defensive position.

"Finn, Alicia, you both need to be careful," Leon informed. "These aren't the same people that we battled in the research facility."

"Yeah," Alicia added. "I've heard that this lady is an-"

"Who's there?" A Grunt interrupted the Swablu's comment. The blonde haired woman turned around, and called for her Glalie.

Leon stepped out from inside the store, followed by Finn and Alicia. They stood in front of the blonde haired woman, and the woman told the Grunts to leave. "So," She said quietly. "What makes you want to come here? To ruin our plans?" She asked as she fiddled around with the ice blue hairpin in her hair.

"Sure, why not?" Finn suggested. "I mean, what do we have to lose?"

"Let's start with 'your lives'," The woman pulled out her hairpin, and held it in front of her face. Finn noticed that it had an odd, rainbow-colored stone in the middle as the woman went to touch it. Immediately, the sliver-blue stone around the Glalie's neck glowed, and a purple light started to surround the Face Pokemon in the shape of a sphere. "Glalie! Mega Evolve!" The woman shouted as the Glalie busted out of the sphere with a different and more _evil_ look.

"Oh no," Leon and Alicia mumbled at the same time.

"Any suggestions on what you'll lose next?" The woman smiled as the Mega Glalie stared at it's opponents intensively.

"How about this battle? Because we're screwed!" Finn screamed as the Mega Glalie shot out an Ice Beam at him. Leon countered immediately with an Aura Sphere, which seemed to barely damage the Mega Glalie. Finn shot out a weak streak of electricity, which bounced off the Mega Glalie harmlessly.

Alicia, who was standing on the sidelines the whole time, decided to do something. She flew up to the Mega Glalie and used a Wing Attack, but the frozen energy from the Ice Type seeped into her wing and froze it. She fell to the ground, trying to break the ice around her wing.

"See? You are all just a group of insecure Pokemon that want to challenge a group of people devoted to a cause too great to miss out on," The woman sniggered as another man clad in dark purple walked next to her. The Pokemon fighting stopped, and waited to see what the man had to say. "Lawrence?"

"Yes ma'am. I was hoping we could do a Double Team battle, Lady Clarissa," Lawrence pulled out a Pokeball. "My Sableye has been _itching_ for a battle since last night." He tossed the Pokeball casually, and the Darkness Pokemon came out to battle the Shifters. He touched the bracelet around his wrist, which held yet another Mega Stone. The stone around the Sableye's neck glowed, and went through a similar process that the Glalie did. "Sableye! Mega Evolve!" Lawrence yelled, and the sphere burst open, revealing a different version of Sableye with a giant red jewel in its hands.

" _Two Mega Pokemon?!_ " Alicia yelled, who's wing was still frozen. "That's ridiculous!"

"We at Team Ascent don't play around," Lady Clarissa smiled maliciously, who then told her Mega Glalie to attack. The Mega Sableye boosted it's partner's attack with a Bulk Up move, and stood in front of the other Mega Pokemon in order to defend it.

"Can't _you_ Mega Evolve, Leon?!" Finn yelled as he dodged an Ice Beam.

Leon stopped for a moment, letting himself get hit by an Ice Shard attack. He laid on the ground for a moment, not sure what to say.

"Too bad the strongest one's almost knocked out," Lady Clarissa chuckled. "And to answer your little question, little Luxio, we've discovered that Mega Evolution makes a Pokemon's worst abilities flare up, allowing it's rage and anger to take over. Who cares if a Pokemon is harmed when we have more power?"

"So you're hurting Pokemon?!" Finn's eyes started to tear up. "You're hurting Pokemon just so then you can control more people?! Where's your humanity?" A few tears dripped down his face as he yelled, "Pokemon have feelings too, just so you know! Just because they can't speak their mind doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want with them! In the time that I've known that Pokemon were real, I never once thought that harming them was a possibility. But then _this_ happens, and now I _know for a fact_ that you assholes are jerks! So if you want to hurt your Pokemon anymore, you'll have to get through me!"

Finn's sadness turned to anger, and soon, a shower of sparks started to rain down on all of the people engaged in the battle. A shockwave of electricity shot out from the Luxio, and knocked down the Ascent members. It rushed out of the building, and continued to go through the city, knocking out power. It ended at the border of the city, leaving the whole metropolis in a state of darkness.

Finn returned to his normal state of happiness and looked around. "Uh, what happened?" He asked a bit childishly.

Leon and Alicia stood up and reverted to their human forms, prompting Finn to do the same. "Uh," Alicia mumbled to herself. "I think you killed those guys."

"What?!" Finn rushed up to the two Ascent members and checked for a pulse. It was faint, but they were definitely not dead.

Leon tested a light switch, only to find out that it wasn't working. "I think you knocked out the power too."

Finn ran around the mall, testing anything that ran on electricity. Light switches, no. Vacuum, no. Coffee pot, nope. " _Dang it._ "

"So that's that," Alicia huffed. "So where's Rosa and Alexo?"

"Over here." The three Shifters turned to see the two missing Shifters coming their way. Alicia ran up to her brother, hugging him as though she was never going to see him again. "I'm fine!" Alexo tried to stop his sister from hugging him, but she was too strong.

She let go suddenly, and ran a hand through her hair again sheepishly. "Sorry," She smiled. "I just missed you."

"It's fine," Alexo smiled. "Me and Rosa got a little caught up, though, taking care of some Grunts down the hall."

"So what Pokemon are you?" Finn asked excitedly, butting into the twins' conversation.

"A… uh... " Alexo trailed off. "I wasn't exactly sure how _do that_ , but I was lucky to make a friend with a Tyranitar. I nicknamed him 'Ty'." Alexo smiled, proud of his achievement.

"That's cool and all," Alicia started to Shift into her Pokemon form. When the light disappeared, she said, "but I'm a Swablu."

"Oh my gosh!" Alexo rushed over to his sister and picked her up. "You're so _cute_! I mean it as a compliment, though, and not like _that_." He put his sister down and smiled. "So, uh, how are you supposed to-"

"Think about it," Alicia interrupted, returning to her human form. " _Yeah,_ not much help, huh?"

"Not really," Alexo closed his eyes for a moment, and then the Shifter Stone turned white. After a moment, Alexo shrunk, and started to obtain long blue ears. He got dark blue fur, with a few tufts of white fur on his head and around his neck, and a giant blue tail with white tips. He stood on his back two white feet, which had begun to resemble paws, and his eyes turned green.

When the light receded back to the Stone, he looked at himself in a mirror. A slight headache was forming in his head, put a paw to it in order to massage his forehead. "I'm a Meowstic!" He said excitedly, sitting down on his tail.

"Cool!" Finn smiled, sitting down next to the Meowstic. "Another cat, like me!"

"Yeah," Alexo smiled weakly, putting more strength into massaging his forehead. It started to throb intensively, and the massaging wasn't helping. "It's just that my head is hurting like crazy," He muttered, lying his head on the ground.

"That's the Psychic typing in you," Rosa commented.

"It shouldn't be too bad, though, since you are the Constraint Pokemon," Leon thought out loud. "It might be best if you change back to your human form. That much psychic energy could damage your brain if you don't have enough practice."

"Okay," Alexo nodded, and let the Shifter Stone take his Pokemon form back and give him his usual human body. He was glad that the headache had subsided, and sat up happily. "I'm good."

"Good," Rosa smiled. "It may be best if we leave now, though."

"Alright," Leon agreed. He took each of the Shifters back to the warehouse, ending with Rosa. The five Shifters stood there for a moment, until Finn broke the silence.

"I wonder how Z's gonna feel when he figures out the we battled Ascent without him…"

* * *

 **A.N.: Hey guys! Sorry this chapter took a bit longer than expected. I had some… personal… matters to take care of.**

 **Good thing is, this chapter broke the word count record of this story with 4.4K words! Yay!**

 **Shoutout to my good friend ClassifiedMc, who's always helping me out!**

 **Uh… not much else to say. Just expect the next chapter to come out this weekend. I know that's a long time, but I kinda need to plan out the next chapter (because I don't know what'll happen next). This is not gonna be an all the time thing, but I hope that this is the last time there's a break like this…**

 **:)**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"Damn it!" Z's voice could be heard from outside the warehouse. "Why the hell didn't you say anything?!" Alexo couldn't hear what Leon said, but it had obviously made the Zoroark angry. "I was fucking training, and you could have had the fucking decency to tell me that!"

After another long string of curse words from Z, both Pokemon came back inside the warehouse, where the rest of the Shifters were waiting. Leon wore a frown, smeared with disappointment, while Z frowned with anger.

"No one better make a comment," Z growled as he trudged towards his room. The rest of the Shifters stood at the entrance, unsure of what to say next.

"I better be getting home," Finn interrupted the silence. "My mom's gonna flip."

* * *

For the next week, things were quiet in the city. Ascent hadn't made any more raids since the mall, but the Shifters were always on the lookout for any kind of movement. Finn, especially, was curious to figure out Ascent's plan, and had been thinking every free minute of his time. Maxwell and Viola hadn't been suspicious when Finn returned home that day after the mall raid, but his mother had worried that something had happened to him. Finn, of course, had the one excuse of 'I was out with some friends' to save him, and it had luckily worked.

So by the time it was Thursday of next week, Finn was completely bored. He practically slept through his classes, attempting to get the precious sleep time that he needed. As a result, he had been fussed at numerous times. But Finn knew that if Ascent took over, fussing wouldn't matter.

Thursday afternoon, in 4th Block, his teacher had just finished teaching her lesson when she realized that Finn was asleep once again. The bell rang, and the rest of the students in the classroom ran out. She woke the 16 year old up, and said quietly, "Are you getting enough sleep at home?"

Finn groaned, and rubbed his eyes. "Yep," He smiled weakly. "I'm just tired." Truth was, he had been trying to control his devastating electric attacks, and had stayed up well into the night in order to do so.

"Well, it's time to go…" The teacher dismissed the sleepy teen, who was already walking out the door.

"Thanks," Finn headed towards the little tree in front of the school, where him and Leon would meet after school. No one would usually stand there, so it was a good spot to discuss important topics. He didn't see Leon; instead, there was a girl with shoulder length brown hair, wearing a red jacket and skirt. It was Lydia Browells.

Lydia noticed that Finn was heading towards her, and she started to wave. "Hey," She called, motioning for Finn to come over to her.

"Hi…" Finn stumbled a bit, already becoming nervous around his crush.

"Uh, it's Finn, right?" Her voice said quietly.

"Uh huh," Finn snapped out of his stupor, and attempted to act like a normal person.

"Is there some reason why you're here?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah," Finn rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I'm, uh, just waiting for someone."

"Okay," Lydia looked at the line of cars waiting to pick up students. "I just like this little tree, and it's a good place to study."

"That it is," Finn remarked. " _God, Finn, SAY SOMETHING!_ " He yelled at himself in his mind.

In that instant, Leon appeared behind the two, and leaned a hand against the little tree. The disguised Lucario analyzed Lydia in a split second, searching through her thoughts. She was a bit confused, but had a little spark of curiosity in her heart.

Finn turned around, and jumped at the sight of Leon. "God, you scared me, Leon!"

Leon nodded, and then gave Finn a look that said, " _So how are you going to take care_ _of this girl?_ "

"Is there something I need to know about?" Lydia asked, looking back and forth between the two.

Finn shook his head nervously, and tried to act casual. "No," Finn smiled with a look of worriedness. "My... uh… uncle was coming here to pick me up!" Leon gave the 16 year old a flabbergasted look, but Finn continued. "We were gonna go over to the…uh…"

"You're lying, aren't you?" Lydia crossed her arms. "I'm told that I'm good at detecting lies."

A few drops of sweat ran down the side of Finn's head, and he wiped it away quickly. "God, it's hot out here, huh?"

"It's December," Lydia rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm gonna tell you right now," She stood in front of Finn, and pointed an accusing finger at his face. "I don't like liars. You two look a bit rough, it seems, and you've been asleep half of the school day. You two are doing something wrong. I can tell. So you have two options: Either tell me now, or I'll call the police on you and they can figure it out. And I'll tell you this, my father's not a nice man when he's on the job."

Silence fell upon the three for a moment, before Leon said, "I think it would be best if you were kept out of this, Lydia."

A car horn honked, and Lydia turned her head towards it. The passenger window rolled down, and a brown haired woman could be seen at the wheel. "How do you know my name?" Lydia asked interrogatively.

"Just like you, I can sense things too," Leon replied.

"Well, I've gotta go," Lydia frowned as she walked toward her mom's car. "And don't think that you two are off the hook! I'm still going to figure this out!" She stepped into the car, and it drove away quickly, leaving the two Shifters speechless.

"And you still like her, huh?" Leon spoke as he lifted Finn up, ready to use Extreme Speed.

"Yeah," Finn said sheepishly.

* * *

"Try to channel all of your psychic energy into that stick," Alicia prompted. Alexo, in his Meowstic form, attempted to lift the stick with his mind, but the stick barely budged. Alexo flopped onto the ground, and sighed.

"Oh, Arceus, I'm never gonna get this right."

"Just keep on trying! Practice makes perfect!" Alicia encouraged her younger brother.

"Nobody's perfect, is what I've heard," Alexo muttered to himself as he tried to lift the stick again. It moved a few inches, but stopped when Alexo felt excited about his growing abilities.

"You'll get better," Alicia shifted to her Pokemon form, and flew up to the treetops. She landed on a tree branch, covered in leaves, concealing her immediately. She spied on Z, who was eating some Oran Berries. He was lying in the nook of two branches, and had his back turned to the tree trunk.

Z took a moment to stop eating, and smiled. "These Berries are great! I'm glad I found these before we came here." He continued to eat his Berries, poking the Berries' skin with his sharp red claws.

Alicia took a moment to prepare a birdsong in her throat, and flew out from her cover. She flew a few laps around the Zoroark, and landed right behind him. The song released itself from her beak, and hit Z with a flurry of musical notes. The Zoroark blinked, unsure of what had just happened. "Did you just…" Z turned around to see the Swablu, and started to get tired. "Arceus, I'm tired." He laid down, and soon fell asleep due to the song.

"I'm glad I'm one for studying Pokemon moves," The Swablu flapped her wings a few times before taking off once again.

* * *

"ALICIA!"

Alexo's head perked up at the sound of his sister's name. The voice belonged to Z, and it sounded like he was pissed.

Z stomped into the warehouse, looking around for his target. He didn't find anything, except for the once asleep Meowstic. "WHERE IS SHE?!" Z shouted.

"Jeez, bust my eardrums, why don't you?" Alexo rubbed his head, and stood up. He fixed his ears, which were folded in an odd way, and straightened his hair as best as he could. "Whatcha lookin' for?"

"Somebody decided it would be funny to pull a little prank on me while I was eating," Z huffed.

"That sounds like her," Alexo smiled. "Don't start anything, though. She's ruthless when it comes to pranks."

"I am too, then," Z continued to look around the warehouse, although nothing turned up. "I'LL GET YOU BACK, ALICIA!"

* * *

 **A.N.: So this chapter was fairly short. I feel like this one was just a filler chapter, but there are a few key points that could play on sooner or later. Sorry for the wait, I was just starting out in Pokemon Go (and I've already run out of Pokeballs). I know I said that this chapter would be out this past weekend, but you might be able to imagine my surprise when I keep on seeing Eevees (They're my favorite!).**

 **Anyway, it seems as though Alicia has started a prank war with Z. And Lydia is showing some curiosity about the Shifters. What happens next?**

 **I don't know.**

 **:)**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

"It's been awhile since you've really talked to me," Maxwell muttered as he followed Finn to his room. "It's like you haven't really cared about me or Mom."

"I'm fine," Finn replied as he tossed his backpack onto his bed. "I've just been busy."

"Busy," Maxwell mocked his brother as the 14 year old started to do his homework. " _I'd_ say that you've been up to something. Remember that time when you were out with that girl that one time? Mom literally flipped out on you."

"I don't have a girlfriend," Finn muttered as he began to pack another bag. "I'm just with some friends."

"Some friends," Maxwell scoffed. "Could you please roll off some of the names?"

Finn ignored the last question. "Gotta go!" He bounded towards the front door and slammed it in his brother's face.

Maxwell stood in front of the door, with his hands on his hips. He put a hand to his face as he mumbled, "I wonder…"

* * *

"Any ideas?" Alexo asked, motioning for the others to speak. The Shifters were gathering information that could be useful to Team Ascent, and were anxious to see what their next move would be.

"Uh…" Finn interrupted the silence. "I think I'm speaking for everyone when I say we have no idea what to do."

"I'm gonna agree with Finn on that one for once," Z muttered.

"Ascent's been quiet for too long," Leon said quietly as he ate a muffin. "It's not like them to be this quiet."

"You say that like you've known Ascent for a while," Alicia stated. "You've bumped into them before this, haven't you?"

Eyes shifted to Leon and Z. A small wave of sadness flared in Z's mind, but it disappeared as quickly as it began. Leon took a moment to think about his answer, and then said, "Yes, we've run into them on numerous occasions. They've been through the main Pokemon regions, as well as a few little known ones. They were searching for the Shifter Stones, if you remember. But they wreaked havoc everywhere they went. As soon as they arrived at a place, it never returned to it's normal state. I remember a time when we met Ascent, in Ilex Forest. It's been years now, around when you were only children. Ascent came through Ilex Forest in search of the Guardian of the Forest, but Celebi was already gone. So they burned it. They captured some of the Pokemon, in order to use them as their slaves, and the rest died. Some were lucky to escape with their lives, but many were not able to make it in time. Z was one of the ones who were able to escape, with my assistance."

Eyes looked towards the 17 year old, expecting an answer. Z seemed to be deep in thought, and had snapped out of his memories when he noticed the eyes staring at him. "It brings painful memories," He said quietly. He stood up and walked out of the room slowly, leaving a small trail of tears behind.

"Poor guy," Finn said quietly. "Is that why-"

"He hasn't talked about that incident since the day after it happened. He doesn't want to relive those memories any more than he has to," Leon warned. "I wouldn't put it past him to lash out at anyone who mention those memories, though."

"This is too much," Alexo stood up, and started to pace around. "We joined Ascent with the intention of helping a scientific company. But if science is going to get in the way of nature, I'm against that. Just because you can't find something doesn't mean you have to destroy it! There are times when we don't get what we want, but that doesn't mean that you throw a temper tantrum because of it! Ascent is getting away with too much, and we have to stop them. Who's with me?"

Silence filled the room for a moment, before someone spoke. "Of course I'm in." Finn smiled as he held one hand out towards the others. "I know I'm kinda new to all of this, but I know that you guys are the best friends I've ever had. And nothing's gonna stop me from helping you guys. Let's do this for friendship!"

Alexo's hand joined with Finn's, as well as Rosa's and Leon's. Alicia seemed a little indignant to add her hand to the mix, but she did with a prompt from her brother. With the Shifter's hands joined, Leon said, "This team will get stronger as time goes by, and we'll last through the ages."

"Let's do this!" Alicia, Finn and Alexo chorused. Z decided to return from outside, and saw that the other Shifters were joining hands. Finn half expected for Z to disregard their form of friendship, but the Zoroark surprisingly added his hand to the group. His red clawed hand trembled a little, still under the shock from the previous few minutes.

"Don't expect this to be an all the time thing," He muttered.

No one made a comment. Instead, they disassembled the pile of hands, and the Shifters separated in order to do their various tasks.

* * *

"Are you sure?"

" I'm pretty sure that we'll be fine."

"But I feel like there's something wrong here."

"That's just your psychic abilities fooling around with you."

"It might be, but this plan might not turn out good. Do you know how many problems this could cause for the group? I know that that place might be abandoned by now, but something's telling me that this isn't going to be good for us."

"You need to learn to control your abilities. If you don't, _you_ could cause a lot of problems."

"Fine, Alicia. But if something happens-"

"Nothing's gonna happen, Alexo. We'll be fine."

* * *

"We have a plan," Alicia announced. Finn had gone home for the day, so the natives from the Pokemon world remained. Leon and Z were curious to hear this proposal, and had sat down on a bed of grass.

"And that is?" Z asked.

"When we were in Ascent, we had a warehouse - kinda like this one - for our little studies and training and stuff. Since the arrival of the Shifters, that warehouse has been abandoned. In the event that somebody messed up and left something there, we can go and get it."

"I don't like it," Z immediately blurted out. "Too many problems in your plan. We don't know what the security was like, and whether or not there's still someone there."

"We'll be fine," Alicia said casually. "We have the firepower, and it's abandoned, so what could go wrong?"

Z took a moment to answer. "I guess it'll be fine," He mumbled. "But if something goes wrong-"

"Nothing's gonna go wrong," Alicia confirmed.

"Then let's go now," Leon said. "I don't sense anything out of the ordinary from the place you're talking about."

Alexo nodded in agreement, although he seemed a bit nervous about the idea. The four Shifters stood up, ready to be transported to the warehouse. In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the abandoned Ascent base, and carefully walked in.

* * *

"All of this homework's gonna kill me," Finn muttered as he sat at the kitchen table, desperately attempting to complete the math assignment before he fell asleep. "Just a few more questions," His voice strained as he held his eyelids open. Even though he had been paying attention in school, his thoughts about the Shifters were becoming increasingly more important in his train of thought. This was one of those times when he just couldn't pay attention.

His phone started to vibrate on the table, making a horrible rattling noise that awoke the almost asleep teen. The cats that made up his ringtone screamed at him to pick up the phone. He did, and looked at the number. "Never seen that one before," He muttered before answering it. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Finn?" A girl's voice said, her voice filled with worry and agitation.

"Yeah. Who is this?" He asked, leaning back in his chair.

"It's Lydia."

Finn fell out of the chair, faceplanting onto the floor. He untangled his body before answering Lydia. "How did you get my number?"

"That doesn't matter right now," She said, a serious tone building up in her voice. "I found this stone earlier, one that kind of looked like yours. So a few minutes ago, I was playing around with it, and…"

"Oh no."

"'Oh no' what?" Lydia's voice yelled back through the phone. "Look, I need you to come over to my house right now. I think that you know what's happening to me."

"Yeah, I do," Finn said nonchalantly. "But how did you get my phone number though? I understand everything _else_ , but the phone number… _that's_ what I wanna come back to…"

"Just get over here NOW!" Lydia yelled before hanging up.

Finn sat on the floor for a moment, not sure of what to do. Yes, it could be possible that Lydia had a Shifter Stone. On the other hand, it could be a trick by Ascent to lure him in. But, as usual, his love for Lydia drove him to walk out the door and start running for her house.

* * *

"I thought you said that this was a warehouse," Z muttered as the two walked through the old Ascent base.

"I did," Alicia smiled, flying around to search for clues.

"This seems more like a fucking scary house or something."

Something fell from across the room, causing the two to turn around. Nothing was there, of course. Alicia thought she had seen a weird purple shadow fly across the room, but she thought nothing of it.

"Told you. Scary house."

"Shut up and keep looking." The two continued to look around until they saw a beat up looking chest. Alicia motioned for Z to break the lock on it, and he did it with ease.

Another object fell from behind them, shattering into a million tiny pieces.

"Is it just me, or are we being watched?" Alicia asked warily.

"Same," Z muttered as he threw open the lid of the chest. Inside was another box, covered in chains. Z was able to cut through the chains, and opened the smaller box. He reached a hand inside, and screamed.

"Oh my Arceus! What?!" Alicia began to panic.

Z pulled out his hand, showing that he was not harmed at all. He smiled slyly, and said, "Gotcha back."

"You shouldn't do that. You'll end up freaking me out." Alicia fussed as she motioned for Z to go through the box again.

He stuck his face in, mumbling, "Good grief, there's more room in here than I thought." He made a little noise when he found something, and stuck a hand in to get it out. The hand went in, and Z's body went rigid. He fell onto the floor, and had started to shake uncontrollably.

"Z?!" Alicia yelled as she Shifted back to her human form, and attempted to revive him. But Z grabbed her by the wing and flung her across the room, and she connected with the wall with a thud. "The hell?" She said, eyes wide, as she watched the Zoroark stand up.

He was shrouded in a purplish light, and his eyes were glowing a much brighter red than before. His body seemed to be coursing with a much stronger energy than before, and his red claws almost seemed to grow a few inches longer. He stared at Alicia with threatening eyes as he growled in a distorted voice, " _You took everything away from me. Now I will take away everything from you._ "

* * *

Finn finally jogged up to Lydia's house, and knocked on the door quickly. He leaned over to catch some of his breath before someone opened the door. "Do you know if Lydia's here?" Finn asked, still out of breath. The woman who opened the door pointed upstairs, silently giving him permission to enter. Finn bolted up the stairs, and knocked on the door that looked like what Lydia's room would be.

"Who is it?" Lydia's voice sounded from inside the room. It was obvious that she had been crying; he could tell by the sound of her voice.

"Finn," He smiled when the door opened slowly. He walked in quickly, shutting the door before anyone could notice. He turned around, and saw a little tan fox with giant ears. The little tufts in the ears were red, and the big fluffy tail had a little red tip at the end. It was sitting in the middle of the floor, a little pile of tissues stacked next to it.

"Lydia?"

"Yes, this is me." She said, flopping onto the floor and bursting into sobs. "What's happening to me?" She asked through a waterfall of tears.

"Uh…"

"And don't act like you don't know," Lydia's voice changed immediately. "I know that you know."

"Fine," Finn sat down next to the little fox, who had lifted her head in order to see him better. "About a week ago, these people called Team Ascent came from the Pokemon world in order to do something. I've been helping a group of Pokemon that want to take them down. That stone you have is a Shifter Stone; the device we use to change between human and Pokemon forms. And somehow you were able to unlock its power, and it turned you to your Pokemon form."

Lydia stared at Finn with big scarlet eyes, more tears building up in her face. "So I'm a monster now," She started to cry again.

"No! You're who you want to be!" Finn consoled the fox by petting her on the head. "Look," He said, activating the Stone around his neck. He Shifted to his Pokemon form almost instantaneously, and a Luxio took his place momentarily. "I know that it's a lot to take in, but you have to keep it a secret."

Lydia's terrified eyes scanned over the Luxio. Both of the Pokemon's ears faced the door when they heard footsteps approaching. "Hide!" Lydia hissed as she ran under her bed. Finn hopped into a little bucket, pulling a blanket over his head with his teeth.

The door opened, and a manly voice said, "Lydia, honey, are you okay?"

"Fine," Lydia squeaked from under the bed. "I'm just in a bad mood. I think I'll turn in for the night."

"Okay honey, if that's what you want," The man closed the door quickly, and the two Pokemon hopped out from their hiding places.

"My dad," Lydia explained. "He's the police chief of the city."

"Oh crap," Finn muttered to himself. "Ima have to be careful if I ever get with her."

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Look, we need to get to our little 'HQ', as I like to call it, and we need to let the guys know that you're one of us now!"

"Wait," Lydia stopped Finn from dragging her out the room. "I can't go out looking like this! My parents would freak out!"

"Just think about it," Finn suggested as he Shifted back to his human form. "That's what I've been told."

" _That_ doesn't help much." She muttered sarcastically.

"I know. It's like telling people stuff they already know." As Finn was saying that, white light from the Stone surrounded her, and returned Lydia to her human self. "See? You're already a pro!"

"Shut up."

"Fine. Then let's go."

* * *

"You hear something?" Alexo asked, his ears perking up at the sound of something crashing.

"Yes," Leon said, deep in thought. He was searching through the warehouse with his aura vision, and had found only Alicia's aura. It was riddled with fear and confusion as she darted around the room she was in. Z's aura, however, was nonexistent. "There's something wrong. Where are they?"

Alexo lifted a paw towards them. "That way," He said with the other paw on his head. The two rushed towards the crashing sounds and the shrill screams from Alicia. The Lucario broke off a chunk of wall behind the Swablu, and motioned for her to come to him. "What's going on?!" Alexo asked, dodging a vase, which smashed against the wall.

"I don't know!" Alicia yelled, running away from the danger. "Z was about to get something from inside this box, and he started going crazy and attacked me!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Alexo yelled. "I'm going to try and figure this out!" He held up a paw to his head, and searched for the Zoroark as best as he could with his limited psychic abilities. But nothing was there. And, as if there was some invisible force controlling Z, a stronger psychic power lashed out at the Meowstic, sending him towards the wall. Alexo was able to produce a bubble shield before he hit the wall, and bounced off it harmlessly.

" _LEAVE ME ALONE!_ " Z's distorted voice yelled, making the three Shifters stop fighting.

"Z, what have you done?" Leon shouted.

" _I haven't done the slightest thing wrong, Lucario_ ," a disembodied voice sounded. " _I have been abused my whole life, and now I aim to stop those who have tortured me. If you are going to be in my way…_ " The voice paused, Z chuckling. " _Prepare to die._ "

Z shot out a ball of dark energy, which hit Alexo head on. The Meowstic was flung back once again, and seemed to be unable to battle. Leon and Alicia fired off their own attacks, but it bounced off Z harmlessly.

"What?! That doesn't make any sense!" Alicia pouted. "It's almost like he's not getting hurt at all!"

"Because he's not," Leon replied. "He isn't getting hurt because he's possessed by a Ghost type Pokemon."

"Are you serious?!" Alicia almost exploded in rage. "What are we gonna have to do, pull out some Proton Packs in that one Ghost PokeBusters movie?"

"We'll have to tempt it out of Z's body," Leon stopped fighting and turned towards the possessed Zoroark. "Z! You have to fight this Ghost Pokemon! You have the strength! I believe in you!"

" _Z isn't coming back,_ " The ghostly voice hissed. " _He has gone to the Ghost World, where spirits roam. It is not possible to come back from the Ghost World without the help of Arceus._ "

"So he's gone then," Leon mumbled quietly.

"So what do we do?" Alicia asked, a flicker of worry appearing in her aura.

Leon didn't answer. Instead, he created a rod of light, which was a bit bigger on the ends. The light revealed itself to be a bone. He grasped it with his paw and flung it towards the possessed Z. It bounced off the Dark type, and landed on the floor. Leon made several more bones, but each one was deflected by the Zoroark.

" _You cannot hurt me!_ " The possessed Z boomed. " _My rage is too strong to be damaged by mortals!_ "

Leon prepared an Aura Sphere, and Z began to build a sphere of dark energy. The two attacks were fired at the same time, and hit each other with equal force. The Lucario was flung back, his energy drained.

The Zoroark had taken the hit, but something seemed to be different about his behavior. It seemed as though something was fighting against the Ghost type. " _What is happening to me?!_ " It screamed, beginning to move uncontrollably.

"I've placed my memories of Z in that Aura Sphere," Leon groaned as he tried to stand. "He's coming back."

"Yes!" Alicia smiled, flapping her wings a few times. "In your face, _ghost_!"

" _Yes_ …" The distorted voice mumbled knowingly. " _You can have him back._ " A purple shadow flew away from Z's body, and the Zoroark crumpled to the ground. Leon and Alicia ran over to him to see if he was okay, but the ghost was already making other plans.

" _You see,_ " The voice said, a bit of delirium in it's tone. " _You do not know the full extent of my powers. If you wish to defeat me, then prepare to battle._ "

"No," Alicia said, standing up as tall as she could. "I'm done with fighting. My teammates are tired, and you still want to play Hide-And-Seek with other people's bodies. So come out from your hiding place, by all means, and show us what you're made of!"

" _If that's what you want, it's fine be me…_ " The purple shadow floated out from behind a wall, and revealed itself. It was a purple witch-like creature with a large witch hat covering most of it's face. The yellow eyes underneath the hat stared through Alicia's soul, giving her a chill almost immediately. A necklace of small red gems hung around it's neck, and streams of purple cloth showed at the bottom of the Magical Pokemon.

"A Mismagius," Alicia said coldly. "It's time for you to pay for the damage."

" _Let's play,_ " The Mismagius chuckled. It became shrouded in a black light, and fired off another Shadow Ball. Alicia dodged it cautiously, almost tripping over her giant cotton wings. Alicia built up a birdsong in her throat, and released it almost instantaneously. The Mismagius dodged that too, however, which angered the Swablu even more.

"If you mess with my friends, you have to mess with me!" Alicia yelled, charging towards the Ghost type. The Mismagius swept the 14 year old off her talons, though, and added her to the pile of defeated Shifters.

" _Weaklings_ ," It chuckled as it floated towards the defeated Pokemon. " _I told you not to underestimate my powers. Now you are most likely dead, and are now heading to the Ghost World. Its sad to see things like this, but then I remember that I have been abused, and that is also sad. And since these weaklings no longer have the will to live, their souls have now been disposed of._ "

"I wouldn't say that," A rough male voice muttered. The Mismagius didn't get to see who it was; instead, it got red claws scraped across it's face, knocking it out instantly.

* * *

"So where are they?" Finn asked.

Rosa smiled and said, "I'm afraid you've missed the express train, dearie. It might be a while before they come back." She turned to Lydia, who was completely horrified by the fact that Rosa was in her Pokemon form. "I'm not going to ask," She said after a moment, and decided to go to sleep for the night.

"So they all live here?" Lydia asked, her confusion turning into curiosity. She started to explore the warehouse a little bit, with Finn following behind her.

"Pretty much," Finn replied. "I mean, _I_ live at home, so…"

"It must have been hard for these guys," Lydia began to mumble to herself. "They've done so much to help, and yet they still have to go through all of this. It's a pity to see people who have to work this hard every day, and still have to put up with so much…"

"That's why I joined," Finn commented. "I hate seeing people suffer because of one's actions."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Lydia sighed, shaking her head slightly. "I sometimes get lost in thought." She decided to change the topic at this point. "So what did you say that I was again?"

"A Fennekin," Finn replied almost instantly. He fussed at himself for making his answer seem prepared and controlled, but Lydia didn't seem to think anything of it.

"It's pretty cute, though," Lydia said, sighing once again.

"Something wrong?" Finn asked with concern.

"I'm fine," She answered quickly.

"Okay."

"Anyone here?" A voice yelled, echoing in the empty warehouse. It sounded like something was being dragged on the ground, and whoever was carrying the weight was groaning extensively. "Rosa, where are you?!" The voice almost seemed to sound like…

"Z!" Finn yelled, running towards the Zoroark's voice. Z had been carrying the rest of the Shifters, who were passed out. "What happened?" Finn asked, and motioned for Lydia to go get Rosa.

"Who…" Z lowered a claw, and answered Finn's question. "We went to an Ascent warehouse to look for clues. Let's just say that it didn't end well and that I'm pissed right now."

"Okay," Finn replied, and offered to help bring the Shifters to Rosa. The Roserade was already preparing a healing move, and Lydia was checking for pulses.

"They'll be fine, but they're going to be asleep at least until dawn," Rosa confirmed. "It may be best if you two go home now."

"Okay, we'll go if there isn't anything else to do," Lydia smiled, and started to exit with Finn by her side. The two conscious Shifters waited until the two humans were out of hearing distance to talk.

"Are they _really_ going to be fine?" Z asked, worry building up in his voice.

Rosa sighed. "Arceus only knows. To be honest, I don't think they'll wake up. But if they do, it'll be a miracle."

* * *

 **A.N.: I'm back! Sorry for the wait, because I take a while writing my chapters. I (kinda) got the inspiration for this chapter from Ghostbusters (cue laughs), and I had kinda hoped that this chapter would have been out last Friday (since it was Friday the 13th for me).**

 **Shoutouts! Last time I checked, I had 587 views (which is 587 people who have read this), so thanks for reading!**

 **Some of my friends are reading this too, and are giving me feedback (and some theories about Finn's one-way love with Lydia). So thanks… I think…**

 **Iron-ninja; to be honest, I have no idea. I hadn't really thought about bringing him back, but if the opportunity is there… I think I could do it.**

 **Rashaad S. My dear friend. NO. :(**

 **Don't worry. He's used to me picking on him by now.**

 **With that out of the way, thanks to my followers (I love that!) and my favoriters(?) I don't know how to say that as a person favoriting something…!**

 **In general, thanks for the support!**

 **Chapter 11 is next! I have passed the 10 chapter mark! Yay! I've had some questions by my friends as to how long this fanfic is going to be, and my answer is… I have no idea. That makes me sound like a bad writer, but sometimes there are those moments when we have those creative writing moments and then we have no idea what'll happen next.**

 **…**

 **Okay... that might only be me who has those moments.**

 **Chapter 11! I'm a bit scared as to what might happen next, because I'll have to think of something. In the meantime, I will probably read fanfics and try to get Pokemon Go to update again (don't ask. Let's just say that technology doesn't like me. And that's why I have to copy-and-paste everything for my chapters to upload).**

 **:-0**


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Alexo was the first to awaken. He sat up slowly, examining his surroundings. He was back at the warehouse, thank Arceus, and it was dark outside. Everyone, save for Finn, who wasn't there, was asleep, quiet and peaceful.

His mind wandered to the events at the abandoned Ascent base. He was sure that he was knocked out first, but he was still able to fairly pay attention to the battle. Leon had tried to reason with Z, but had been knocked out. A Mismagius had appeared, and beat his sister. And that was when he had passed out from exhaustion.

Someone had to have brung them back to the warehouse though. He wasn't sure who it was, and he was too tired to figure it out. He laid his head down, and attempted to sleep. He couldn't though, and resorted to watching the other Shifter's dreams through his psychic abilities.

* * *

Finn and Lydia walked together to school the next morning, and Maxwell had to walk by himself. He grumbled the whole way there.

"I swear, there's something wrong with him. And no doubt it's with Lydia," Maxwell muttered as he entered the high school.

Yes, it was true that Finn and Lydia were up to something, but it was definitely not what Maxwell was thinking. Finn attempted to answer all of Lydia's questions in the short amount of time that the two were walking to school. And she had lots of them.

"Look, I don't know everything, Lydia! _Yes_ , there are still a lot of things we don't know, and I'm pretty sure that we're not gonna figure anything until Ascent attacks again!" Finn groaned, trying to make Lydia stop with all of the questions.

"But I just want to know!" Lydia replied as she ran to catch up with Finn, who had attempted to run away from his crush.

"Ugh!"

* * *

School was almost literally torture for Finn and Lydia. Finn was anxious because Lydia would not shut up in class. She kept on nagging him with questions, whether it was verbal or by a note. And it was getting very annoying.

" _FINN! Please! You don't have any ideas?_!" She wrote, and passed her paper to the desk next to her's, which was Finn's.

" _No, I don't. Please just pay attention_!" Finn responded.

 _"I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL YOU TELL ME."_

 _"I will crumble this up and throw this away if you don't stop."_

 _"I bet you won't. ;)"_

 _"Try me."_

 _"You're still writing."_

 _"Argh!"_

 _"Fine. I'll be quiet, but you need to tell me at lunch."_

 _"… Fine."_

Lydia put the paper in her folder as the bell rang. She packed her things almost instantly, and shoved Finn's things into his bag. She pulled him up by the shirt collar and dragged him out of the classroom.

"Jeez, choke me already!" Finn squirmed out from Lydia's grasp, and muttered as he rubbed his neck, "God, you're strong!"

"Yeah. Or it just might be that you're weak."

"Ouch."

"You're a disappointment," Lydia muttered as she sat down at an empty lunch table. She patted the seat next to her, and Finn sat down a bit reluctantly. "Talk."

"I don't know anything! I've already told you what I know!" Finn pleaded.

"Alright!" Lydia muttered, smacking Finn upside the head. "If you have nothing else to say, then I might as well give you a burn that'll make you think of something!"

"I'm not one for burns," Finn deadpanned. "Besides, you don't know how to use any of your powers."

"Not _yet_ ," Lydia giggled a little.

"I'm scared now," Finn joked, lightly slapping Lydia on the back.

The sound of footsteps were heard from behind the two, and Finn turned around quickly to see who it was. It wasn't a student he had seen in school before. He was definitely a teen, with red dyed hair with black highlights, and wore a black jacket with red fingerless gloves, black jeans, and black shoes with red accents. Finn knew who it was in an instant.

"Z!" Finn stood up, and almost went to give Z a hug, but stopped after thinking about that for a moment. He instead scratched his head with one hand and asked, "Uh, how did you get here?"

"Zoroark are the masters of illusions," Z smiled slyly. "I really don't need a Shifter Stone to change my form. But to answer your question, I walked in looking like you and no one asked any questions!"

"Okay…?" Lydia mumbled, her head tilted to the side slightly.

"Who's this chick?" Z asked casually, flopping onto the seat next to her. He tried to wrap an arm behind her neck, but Lydia swatted it away quickly.

"Your new teammate," She stated crossly. She crossed her arms and gave the disguised Z a disgusted look. "And you seem like a slob."

"Say what you will, but I'll have you know that I'm actually a very neat person," Z grinned, and helped himself to Finn's lunch. He spit the food out almost immediately, disgusted by it's taste. " _Damn_ , that's some bad shit!"

"And now we know why this generation's messed up. It's because of the food," Lydia commented.

"And also why Finn is so messed up," Z added, a sly grin still on his face.

"Hey!" Finn exclaimed. "Food is my life!"

"I'll keep your word on that, Sparky," Z muttered, and started to play with the cup of Jello on the food tray. He seemed to be captivated by it, and seemed to like the way it moved. Z noticed that he was being watched, and growled, "What? We don't have this kind of stuff back at home."

"Quick question," Finn turned to a different topic. "So… why did you decide to come over here?"

Z stood up, still holding the cup of Jello. "Speaking of which, you two are gettin' out of school now." He struggled with putting down the cup, but Lydia ended up snatching it out of his hand and threw it in the trash can.

"But I wanted that…" Finn moaned quietly as he watched one of the school janitors take away the trash can.

"Anyway," Z muttered, fumbling around with his gloves. "Just wait here. Five minutes tops." He then snapped his fingers, and went completely invisible. The two teens were a bit shocked by their teammate's sudden disappearance, but they had gotten used to sudden things by now.

"That's impressive, though," Lydia thought out loud.

And a few minutes later, the front office receptionist came on the announcements and stated, " _Finn Qwill and Lydia Browells to the front office please. Finn Qwill and Lydia Browells to the front office._ "

"There we go," Finn muttered as he walked towards the front of the building, Lydia following closely behind. They walked through the door, and Finn saw a familiar figure standing in front of the desk. "Mom!"

"Yes, honey, I'm here to pick you and Lydia up," She explained. She gave Finn a quick wink before finishing the sign-out papers.

"Oh…" Finn facepalmed, knowing exactly what was happening.

"Thanks," The receptionist mumbled curtly, who then continued to do some more work on her computer. Finn's 'mother' escorted the two out of the office, and opened the school door.

When they were out of earshot from anyone, Finn said, "Nice going, Illusion Boy."

"Shut up," Z muttered as he transformed back into his usual human form. "I didn't come here to do tricks like they do in circuses. We have a problem."

Finn switched to his serious face, and asked, "What happened?"

* * *

"So did you find anything?" Lydia asked, finally understanding why the group of Shifters were absent last night. She was still fairly confused by the fact that there was some freaky ghost-witch type thing, but mostly everything else was understandable.

"Nothing except for that box," Z answered, feverishly pacing around the room. "And I didn't grab it like a stupid idiot." He stopped pacing and faced the other two. "Look, I'll be right back, and if I'm not back by nightfall, just know that I'm in trouble."

And without another word, he took off into the forest, leaving a trail of dead leaves floating behind him.

"He's the grouchy type, isn't he?" Lydia asked, a bit confused by the Zoroark's behavior.

"He can be like that sometimes, but I really think that he's not all big and bad like he acts like. There's something deep inside of him that really cares," Finn smiled, and fiddled around with his Stone.

"It's about time we did some training, huh?" Lydia asked, adrenaline flooding into her bloodstream.

"Usually that's Leon's job, but I guess we could try some stuff," Finn said quietly, watching Leon sleeping peacefully.

"Then let's go!" Lydia bounced up and down excitedly. "I'm ready to learn some stuff!"

* * *

Z looked around the abandoned Ascent warehouse, searching for the box that he had found last night. It didn't take him long to find it, and when he did, he picked it up and grunted in satisfaction.

He thought about the events from last night. When the Mismagius had taken control. It wasn't a good feeling at all. It was as though he had been shoved out, and wasn't able to control his own body. He hadn't meant to cause harm to his friends, but there was a side to him that had that sadistic satisfaction in the violence of his friends. His trip to the Ghost World had not been particularly happy; Ghost type Pokemon harassed him, and had tempted him into staying. But he was not one for agreeing with strangers. After a quick fight with the ghosts, he arrived back to his body, and had defeated the Mismagius with a swift Dark Pulse.

Now he stood there, holding the box, thinking of the damage he had done to the team. He couldn't sleep last night; the horrible thoughts of his friend's deaths were all too real. He had sat on a tree limb, watching the moon, living his dreams. Most likely Leon was the one most hurt. The one that was most important to him. And now he was comatose, and the only thing he could do was wait.

" _You've gotta think about the present,_ " A voice said encouragingly, making Z turn around. No one was there though. But he knew exactly who's voice it was. Alexo. " _If you keep on living in your dreams, you won't be able to focus on this reality._ "

"That's freaky," Z muttered, and snapped the box's lid shut. "How are you doing this?"

" _I'm just in your mind,_ " Alexo giggled. " _Don't worry, I don't care about your memories. I don't want to know what happens there._ "

"Thanks," Z said, a bit confused.

" _We all have secrets, you know. I know that I could easily find them in a person's mind, but I refuse to do so. I know it must be hard, what you've been through, but that isn't an excuse to blame yourself for what another has done._ "

"Shut up. You don't know what I've been through," Z snarled, and blocked attempted to block the Meowstic out of his mind. With his prize in hand, he headed back to the warehouse, hoping Alexo would actually take his advice and shut up.

* * *

"What's in the box?" Alexo asked when Z got back to the warehouse. The 12 year old had been practicing his psychic abilities, and had not shut up even when Z had asked him to.

Z sat the box down and laid down on the floor. He started fumbling with the lock on it, and muttered, "I haven't checked."

Finn had been studying the words on the box. He smiled, pointing to a word, and commented, "It says 'Fra-gee-lay'..."

"It says 'Fragile', dumbass," Z muttered as he threw open the lid to the box. He reached a hand in, and pulled out a single leather-bound notebook. It had been weathered with age, and torn pages had been hastily taped back into the notebook. It appeared to be some type of journal, indicated by the amount of dates that were on the pages. Scribbled handwriting was apparent, as if the person who wrote the words was always in a hurry - or afraid that someone might find them.

"Huh," Lydia mumbled, flipping through the journal's pages swiftly. "Some kind of scientist's journal, I'd presume."

"Most likely from Ascent," Alexo added. "There was no doubt that our science department was larger than most corporations."

"I'll keep on reading this, in case there's something important in here," Lydia closed the notebook and put it in her purse.

"In that case, we'll act upon what we've read," Alexo smiled, playing around with his large Meowstic ears. He seemed to be enjoying it very much.

"If you nerds already have all of this sorted out, I'm gonna go train," Z muttered, standing up. "And don't think about following me." He added with a growl.

* * *

 **A.N.: Hey everybody! Shorter chapter than usual, but I think this one is very important for a few reasons. The journal, first off, which may carry some vital details to Ascent's plan. Let's just hope that Lydia's a fast reader!**

 **Because this one was shorter than usual, I'm sure something else is going to turn up in the next chapter. So be prepared to wait a few days!**

 **One thing I have not really thought about is the fact that Z doesn't really need a Shifter Stone to change his form. I didn't think about it until this chapter. Whoops on my part! But there's going to be a reason for that soon! :)**

 **As usual, please review (I'm loving all of the positive reviews that I've been given)! I need all the help I can get.**

 **Chapter Twelve is next! _Wow_ , have I really gotten this far already? Yes I have, and I'm too into this story to take a break! Have a nice day and keep reading!**


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

"Are you sure we haven't gotten suspicious by now?" A small voice asked within the large crowd of Grunts. "I mean, we've hit two major facilities, both with complete successes, and yet no one has said anything other than that group of rebel Pokemon?"

A sinister voice answered the scientist quickly. "I assure you, Edwards, that everything will fall the way I want it to. I have rose through the ranks of this fine… association, and I am now the Leader of Team Ascent. If I can do _that_ , then we should have no problem taking care of those weak Pokemon."

"Yes sir," Edwards squeaked, who then ran away from the leader with his Rotom floating closely behind. He ran towards his office, and closed the door quickly. He leaned against it, a hand massaging his head. His Rotom leapt from appliance to appliance, trying to find a comfortable spot to stay.

"Oh, Rotom, this is hopeless," The scientist muttered as he slid to the floor. Rotom, who was in a toaster, hopped his way, and attempted to console his partner, but with no luck. "If I can't find that notebook, I'm as good as dead."

"Ro?" Rotom asked through the toaster, a few sparks flying out from the plug.

"Yep, the Boss isn't gonna like that," The man replied, and stood up to look in some boxes. "It's not here."

Rotom flew out from the toaster, and entered the desktop at his desk. Rotom searched through Ascent's files, and pulled up a folder which led tens of hundreds of documents. "Rotom!" It cried gleefully, and hopped out of the monitor.

Edwards took a look at the screen for a moment before jumping up and down with excitement. "Rotom, how were you able to transfer my journal entries to the system?" He asked, filled with happiness.

Rotom gave a shrug as best as he could. It wasn't hard, since the Plasma Pokemon could read. He just transferred the words and drawings to the computer just be looking at them. "Ro! Rotom!" He explained quickly before hopping back into the toaster.

"Oh this is great!" Edwards shouted, hugging the toaster. "I gotta get this to the Boss!" Edwards typed a few things in the monitor before plugging his Flash Drive into the USB port. He waited a moment for the system to transfer the data to the Flash Drive, and then he pulled it out with glee. "Come on Rotom!"

Rotom floated out from the toaster, and eyed the man's cell phone devilishly. The Plasma Pokemon hopped into the phone without a moment's notice, and Edwards took off towards the Boss's office.

* * *

"Oh my _lord_ , this is hard!" Lydia flopped down onto the ground with a huff, obviously tired from trying to make little fireballs come out from her mouth. Her giant Fennekin eyes pleaded for the training to stop, but Finn and Alexo were having too much fun "Why can't this be easy for once?!"

"Because it's like learning a new skill," Alexo suggested. "Think about juggling. That stuff takes _forever_ to master. I tried, and I failed miserably. Take it from a person like me; don't learn how to juggle."

"And this helps me _how_?" Lydia grumbled, standing back up again. Her little legs almost felt like they were going to fall off from the main part of her body, and her ears and tail dragged her further down. She desperately wanted to take a break, but Alexo would just hoist her up again with his psychic powers.

Finn, who was sitting up in a tree, was trying to pick some apples to eat. He was in his Luxio form, so then the picking would be a new challenge for him. But even that was tiring him out. So now the Spark Pokemon was just swatting at the closest apple, hoping that it would fall down eventually.

Alexo looked at the two 16 year olds with a confused look on his face and muttered, "I'm twelve, and I still act more mature that you two." If he were in some kind of anime show, he knew that he would have had that little exasperated tear coming down the side of his face.

"I just don't understand how this works!" Lydia pouted. "Tell me how it works again."

"Just try to breathe out hot air from the back of your throat," The Meowstic suggested as he played with a ball of yarn. A lot of things were really grabbing his attention when he was in his Pokemon form.

"Says the one who's mature," Lydia wrinkled her nose, smelling a foul stench in the air. It smelled exactly like trash. "God, what's that _smell_?"

"What smell?" Finn asked. He stopped playing with the apple and turned his nose to the air. He sniffed a couple of times, and immediately wrinkled his nose. He fell out of the tree and landed with a thud, probably from the shock of the smell. "What _is_ that?!"

Something shifted in the bushes in front of them, and the three's fur rose up with fear and tension. Finn was the one who was brave enough to see what it was, and split the bush in half with his paws.

It was a white furred creature at least a foot taller than him, with dark blue fur covering its face and paws. Red eyes glowed from it's face, contrasting deeply with the dark blue face fur. A dark blue scythe-like tail sprouted out from behind the Pokemon, and a dark blue crescent-shaped horn that could be used for attacks was on the left side of it's face.

"An Absol," Alexo whispered in the Fennekin's ear. He seemed to be tense, even though the Pokemon didn't seem like it would harm them.

"Okay? And?" Lydia asked, unsure of the Meowstic's sudden fear.

"Absol are classified as the Disaster Pokemon," He informed with a tremble. "They always appear before a disaster."

"Tough luck," She muttered. "Too bad I don't believe in superstitions."

The Absol sat up and looked at the three Pokemon. It tilted its head to the side, clearly confused. "I'm sorry if I've disrupted your training," The Absol said with crystal clarity. He blinked, attempting to figure out if the Luxio, Fennekin and Meowstic were actually there with him.

"Uh, no…" Finn mumbled, unsure of what to say. He kept on looking at the horn on the side of his head, wondering if the Absol would use it on them. "Uh, we just were trying to figure out who was here. We didn't mean to mess with you."

"It's fine. I enjoy the company," The Absol chuckled, standing up on all fours. He sniffed the ground for a moment, and noticed one of the apples that Finn had dropped. He licked it with a little pink tongue, and seemed to like it's taste. It took a bite, and then devoured the rest before anyone could register the Disaster Pokemon's extreme hunger.

"I'm sorry. It's been awhile since I have eaten anything." The Absol sat down again to have a better look at the three Pokemon. "Could I please have your names? I might have to stay around here for awhile, and I would not like to call you by your Pokemon names."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Alexo asked accusingly, pointing a white paw at the Absol.

The Absol backed away slightly, disturbed by the Constraint Pokemon sudden accusation. "I mean you no harm," He said kindly. "I just need a place to stay for the night." Alexo still didn't seem to be satisfied by the answer he was given. The Absol sighed, and continued. "I came here only a few hours ago, and I'm not sure where I am. I'm assuming that Pokemon are indigenous to this area, since you three are here, but everything else here seems… different."

"That's Earth for you," Finn commented, who then received a paw in the side by Lydia. "Ouch! That hurt!"

"Earth…" The Absol said quietly, looking towards the sky. "Hmm... interesting…"

"Uh…" Lydia decided to change the topic. She walked up to the Absol, and lifted a paw. "I'm Lydia." She motioned for the Absol to shake it, which he did with elegance.

"You may call me Absol," Absol flashed a small smile.

"I'm Finn," The Luxio smiled, which was unusual for their species. He shook Absol's paw, and then motioned for Alexo to do the same. With much indignation, Alexo stuck out a rigid paw, and forcefully shook Absol's paw.

"Thank you for being kind to me," Absol smiled as he found another apple. He didn't eat that one as quickly as the first one; instead he took his time, taking small nibbles instead of giant gulps.

"You see, back when I was in the Sinnoh Region, many humans and Pokemon did not appreciate my being there with them," Absol explained, licking the juice from the apple. "I was turned away from them, and was forced to live elsewhere. Many Absol preferred to live near the top of Mt. Coronet, but it was too cold for me there.

"I instead lived near a peaceful little lake near Twinleaf Town. Lake Verity, I believe." Absol received a nod from Alexo before continuing. "It was quiet, as expected, and it was just me with a group of simple, low level Pokemon. Not much happened in the time that I stayed there. I remember a time when two kids were attack by some Starly, but they were able to take care of themselves with their own Pokemon. Other than that, it was a natural sanctuary for Pokemon, including the Legendary Pokemon Mesprit.

"Mesprit was my friend, actually. We would play around the lake, constantly having fun." Absol sighed, thinking about his memories from the past. "But it was not meant to be."

"What happened?" Finn asked, clearly attached to the Disaster Pokemon's interesting story.

"Well, an accident happened." Absol paused for a moment before he continued. "One day Mesprit and I were playing, and a Trainer had come in search of her. With an empty Pokeball in hand, he had sent out his Houndoom to attack her. As the other wild Pokemon fled in fear, I stayed to protect my friend. I fended off the Houndoom as much as I could, but he was just too strong.

"And then the Trainer did something to his Pokemon. He and the Houndoom both had an odd stone, and the man tapped his, which was made into a pin on his chest. The Houndoom then _changed_. He changed into something savage. Whatever the man had done, it had turned the Houndoom into something made of pure _evil_. It attacked me with much more force than before. He knocked me out, and took Mesprit away from me." A tear dropped down Absol's face as he continued.

"But the Houndoom was not done yet. Before the left, the Houndoom torched Lake Verity, causing a dramatic forest fire. After a while the firefighters were able to put out the fires, and there was no evidence of a fight. Do you want to know who was there, though? Me. An Absol. The Disaster Pokemon. The Pokemon that is always present when disasters strike. So you could probably imagine my surprise when the fire was pinned on me. After that I left what Lake Verity, searching for the friend that was taken from me."

By now, a small stream of tears were flowing down from Absol's red eyes, softly falling into the ground. Lydia felt Absol's feelings for a moment, and nuzzled him consolingly. "I'm so sorry," She whispered.

"I never found her," Absol attempted to choke down a sob. "The only thing I can say is that she's gone."

"She's not gone," Finn said encouragingly.

"Then she's been forced to live a miserable life," He moaned. He wiped some of the tears off of his face, as he continued.

"But after I while, I was captured by a group of people adorning a dragon shaped in an A. They shoved me in a crate, and I assume they must have come here. I broke out, though, and I have been wandering around for the past few hours," Absol finished his tale with, "Which leads me to here."

Finn, Lydia and Alexo stared at Absol, their thoughts dwelling on the story they had just been told. "That's terrible," Finn mumbled.

"We're here to help you, if you want it," Lydia offered. "We have a nice little place for you to stay with us."

"I would enjoy that very much," Absol smiled, who then began snacking on a third apple.

"Okay then," Lydia started trotting towards the warehouse. "It's this way!" Finn and Alexo followed her, leaving Absol to think to himself for a moment.

" _Why have I come across these children? Are they the ones who will avert the oncoming tragedy? Or are they going to fail, just like the ones before them?_ " Absol picked up his apple with his teeth and trotted behind the three mysterious Pokemon. " _Only time will tell._ "

* * *

 **Lab Report: 11-29-16**

Nicholas Edwards

 _I'm sure of it. If my calculations are correct, then the items needed to awaken - are located in a separate dimension from ours, along with the rest of the Shifter Stones. Although those Stones are very interesting, they are not the reason we are going there. In the event that someone receives this journal, I am forced under protocol that I must not disclose any information pertaining to this._

 _But the Boss will enjoy his prize much._

 _Locations: Some kind of rock study facility(?), mall, weather institute._

 _$$$ All I know is that I'm going to get a good paycheck if this goes good! $$$_

* * *

"Huh," Lydia mumbled to herself as she read the journal entry. Even though the entry had the heading of a 'lab report', it seemed like it was almost like a personal journal. Whoever this Edwards fellow was, she was grateful that he had been clumsy enough to forget it.

All of the information that was given was extremely interesting, even with the scratched out word missing, but there was one thing that caught her attention. The locations. The way Edwards had worded the journal, it seemed as though the locations were where the items were. The items needed to awaken something. " _Whatever that is,_ " Lydia thought.

Finn walked up to her, inspecting the page in the journal. It took him a moment to process all of the words, and he had to sit down so then he didn't pass out. "What do you think?" Lydia asked.

"Uh…" Finn mumbled, reading over the journal again. "I remember that the two times they've attacked, they hit a rock research facility and the mall. Both times they were looking for something. I even remember someone saying that the Shifter Stones were not the reason why they were there. But what would they be looking for…?"

"Do I look like I know?" Lydia grumbled. "Just because my dad's a police officer doesn't mean I inherited all of his snooping traits."

"Okay, grouchy pants." Finn looked around for Alexo, who was still playing with the ball of yarn. "Here kitty kitty kitty kitty!" The Luxio taunted. Alexo immediately turned at the sound of Finn calling him, and stopped playing with the yarn. The Meowstic wrapped the yarn around his ears, making the Constraint Pokemon look like a poorly decorated Christmas tree.

"What?" He asked, walking towards the two. "I was busy."

"You were busy acting like a cat," Lydia teased, and playfully tapped Alexo's nose with a paw. "Anyway, what do you think?" She held the notebook in front of the Meowstic's green eyes.

Alexo read over it, but faster than Finn. He thought to himself for a moment before saying, "I never knew much about what Ascent was up to, even though I was part of the group. But I did hear about something with collecting the items necessary to awaken a Legendary Pokemon. Who it was, I have no idea." He thought for a moment before going on. "Anyone have a map?"

"Sure," Finn pulled out his phone and attempted to unlock it. Since he was in his Luxio form, it went terrible. He ended up having to Shift back to his human form in order to navigate through the phone better. He pulled up a map of the city, playing around with the settings so then it was easier to find locations.

"Okay," Alexo pointed a paw to the map. "First they hit the facility." Finn plotted a point on the map, showing a small blue dot where he tapped. "Then the mall." A little green dot was plotted. "If my guess is right, then they should be hitting the weather institute next." Finn plotted a little red dot, and the three points made a triangle within the city.

"That's gotta be where they are!" Finn smiled, putting away his phone. "Let's get going!"

"Wait, what about Absol?" Lydia asked, looking at the Disaster Pokemon sleeping peacefully in the corner of the room. " _Ha, how ironic. The Disaster Pokemon sleeping peacefully._ " She laughed inwardly.

"I think we can trust him," Alexo said warily. "He seems alright to me."

"Great!" Finn Shifted back to his Pokemon form. "Let's get Z and go! We don't have any time to waste!" The Luxio ran out of the warehouse to find Z, leaving Lydia and Alexo in the dust. The two slowly walked behind their enthusiastic friend, both a bit nervous as to what would happen at the weather institute.

* * *

When the three left, Absol slowly stood up. He was still sore from all of the running he had done previously, but he was happy that someone cared for him for once. Absol began to clean the wound on his back leg, which had been given by an angry Arcanine when he was escaping. A searing burn was still left there, and he had done his best to cool it down. If he had only had a Rawst Berry, it wouldn't have been a problem. But, of course, it seemed as though there were not any Berry Trees in the area; an odd thing, especially in the Sinnoh Region.

There were not any nearby bodies of water, so he was forced to walk until he could not move anymore. He had stopped at a bush, and decided that he would have to stay there for the night. He had begun to clean his wounds, and there was unfortunately no meal for him.

But then those kids discovered him. He was shocked, of course, but he was growing attached to them more and more by the second. He thought of them as friendly, and selfless. Even though that Meowstic kid was showing some fear in Absol, he knew that the Psychic type's reason would prevail over superstition.

So now he was in a warm home. Granted, it was not the nicest home, but it would have to do. It seemed like there were more Pokemon there; a Swablu, a Zoroark, a Lucario and a Roserade. They were either missing or asleep, but he didn't mind. Absol was used to solitude.

He would last, even without the support of his new friends. He hated to say that, but it was true. There was the fair possibility that none of them would make it, but he hoped to Arceus that it would not ever happen.

* * *

 **A.N.: Hi, I'm back! This chapter was not what I expected it to be. If you've gotten to here by now, you already know that Finn and the others are going to the city's weather institute. I planned to have the next chapter to be this chapter, but Absol was someone I thought was important to the story. So he will pop up alot.**

 **Updates: So ya know how you can have the characters of the fanfic set up and everything? Well, I finally decided to do it, adding four main characters to it (Luxio, Fennekin, Zoroark and Lucario). That way it can be a bit easier to find. :)**

 **Shoutouts!**

 **Ninjas Say Hi! I say hi back! Thanks for the review. I haven't really thought of Pokemon like that before, but I understand what you mean, especially when I think about my interpretation of Mega Evolutions.**

 **Zformtapu, thanks for the recommendation! I'm still getting used to the quirks of the website, but I'll eventually figure everything out.**

 **All of my followers and favoriters! Thanks alot!**

 **I'd like to give a shoutout to the app. No this isn't an advertisement. I happened to find this in the App Store one day, and it's been nicer to me (rather than the website, who is mean to me on a daily basis). You can do chapters, read, and other things (I haven't looked anymore than that). I think it's great for readers, so try it out!**

 **CHAPTER THIRTEEN! Should be expected in a few days (this chapter was an exception because I had started on this one right after Chapter 11). Have a good day, and always read!**


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

…...

…...

…...

Leon seemed to like floating in the darkness. In a way, he wasn't floating, but the fact that he could not see anything was mildly fascinating. He knew that he was still unconscious, but it triggered emotions that he hadn't felt since he was a Riolu. Curiosity, fascination… joy. Why joy? Why was the Aura Pokemon joyful about being passed out?

That question, however, was never answered. Letting his curiosity take over, he started walking around, hoping that he would eventually find something. It felt a bit odd to walk around in the darkness, but he had gotten used to it after a couple of steps.

"Hello?" He called out, the familiar bark of a Lucario echoing in his vast unconsciousness. He didn't get an answer back, except for his echo. "Anyone here?"

Why would he ask that? He did not feel any other presences in the dark void, but something was telling him to keep on searching. After what felt like ages of walking, he stopped, taking a short breath before moving on.

An interesting thought came to his mind as he walked. " _What if I'm dead?_ " It would explain the darkness, but it felt a bit weird to know that there was no 'afterlife'. After all, he had hoped that Arceus would take his soul somewhere safe after he departed from the world, but he was starting to think otherwise.

"Why am I here?" He asked, as if he was going to get an answer back. Someone was definitely watching him. He could feel it. Even though he felt no presence in the void, his gut instincts were telling him that someone was there, watching his every move.

" _Perspective_ ," A hushed voice whispered in the Lucario's mind.

"Huh?" Leon asked, unsure of where the voice was coming from. "Who are you? Where am I?"

 _"I'm afraid you've already answered that yourself,"_ The voice said dully _. "I cannot tell you who I am, though I very much wish I could."_

"Okay…" Leon felt a bit unsure about this seemingly shady character, but something about him seemed familiar to the Lucario. He decided to go along with the voice, because he didn't have much else to do. "But I'm here because of perspective?" He asked in an incredulous tone.

 _"There are times, times when we need to look through another's eyes. We sometimes have to slip into someone else's shoes for a moment,"_ The voice whispered _. "It may be nice to see through_ your _eyes at some point in your life, but there are times when another's point of view is necessary."_

"But I can already do that," Leon fingered the spikes on his paws for a moment. "I am the Aura Pokemon."

" _But_ _do_ _trust_ _in_ _your_ _abilities_?" The voice inquired.

"Well…" The Lucario thought to himself for a moment before continuing. "There are times when I feel like I cannot control my powers, but things do not go out of control like they used to. Back when I was younger, and more foolish."

At that moment, he recalled a memory in which he was in an abandoned hallway, searching for someone. His appearance was somewhat different; He had more aura receptors than before, and his body now had burgundy accents on his paws, feet, and tips of the receptors. There was a spike on each foot now, with an additional, and much smaller spike situated behind the larger spikes on his paws and feet. His eyes were still bearing the same crimson color, but his fur mask was now etched with more black than before.

But his emotional state at the time was unbearable. The Mega Lucario was seething with anger and hatred, his body pulsing with an evil form of adrenaline. They had taken away everything from him. His friends, Jax the Shinx and Megan the Eevee. Both gone. Taken away by Team Ascent. He had seen their bodies being thrown into the pile of dead Pokemon, and now he was about to do the same.

Now he would take out the one who was in charge.

With his aura vision, he was able to spot a group of Grunts, ready for his attack. They sent out their Pokemon, but he was able to defeat all of them with one swift Aura Sphere. He then sent another Aura Sphere towards the humans, which knocked them all into the wall. Immediately he could tell that they were dead.

But their deaths did not affect Leon's emotions. He still searched for his prize, destroying those who were in his path. When he reached the Boss' office, there were several piles of dead people and Pokemon. The Mega Lucario did not bother to knock on the wooden door. He summoned a bone staff and knocked it down with a swift stroke.

"Why are you doing this, young Lucario?" A voice tried to tempt the Aura Pokemon, but Leon was oblivious to the words. He flung his bone staff at the voice, and he could tell that it connected by the sound it made when it hit the man.

More men ran into the room, but the Lucario only pushed them aside. " _Tell_ _me_ _where_ _they_ _are_!" A distorted voice came out of Leon's mouth, speaking in English. " _Tell_ _me_ _where_ _your_ _Boss_ _is_!"

They did not want to answer. Soon enough, their bodies were added to the mix of dead bodies in the building.

His aura receptors picked up the presence of Team Ascent's Boss, and the Lucario sent abnormally large Aura Sphere at the man. It missed, and hit a main support beam instead. The building began to collapse, and the Boss had the chance to escape.

Leon, however, stayed, his head lowered and was crouched down on one knee. Debris fell upon him as he blacked out from the immense pressure from the Mega Evolution.

The memory faded away as tears started rolling down the present Lucario's face. The tears stained his fur, but he did not care. He had made a reckless mistake in the past, and it had cost many people's lives. He was not what the others thought him to be. He was not a good Pokemon. He did not deserve to live.

 _"You see? You must control your powers, even now. You may be older now, and more experienced, but that does not mean that you will not make this mistake again. I know that you mean well by attempting to stop Ascent, but you must understand how the others feel."_

With a tear streaming down the side of his face, the Lucario whispered, "Take me back, Father. Take me back."

* * *

Finn, Lydia, Alexo and Z were exploring the weather institute, with no success in finding a sign from Ascent. Z made the suggestion that maybe they had already come and gone, but Finn was reluctant to agree with it.

"They're not here yet," Alexo said after a quick psychic scan of the area. "They'll come soon, though."

"Then we better hide," Lydia suggested. "If we hide, then we have the element of surprise."

"Didn't we have the element of surprise for the last two times as well?" Finn asked, glancing at Z and Alexo. "I'm pretty sure…"

"Yeah," Z muttered nonchalantly. "Can you just shut up now? You're giving me a headache, Sparky."

"I hate that nickname."

"Too bad." Z snickered, his sharp fangs showing slightly. "You need to come up with something for me, because I'm pretty sure Illusion Boy isn't what I would use for name-calling."

"I'm sure _I_ can think of something!" Lydia started wagging her tail happily. A bit of admiration was evident in her voice.

"Oh- _kay_ …" Finn cringed. He did not want to know the thoughts that was running through their heads. "Let's get going…" Finn changed the subject quickly, not wanting the awkward silence to be held for long.

Three of them were naturally small, so Finn, Lydia and Alexo were able to hide in a broom closet. But Z was at least 5 feet though, so he had to change into a different Pokemon to hide somewhere. He did not, however, want to hide in the broom closet. He turned into an Umbreon, and darted underneath the closest desk. Even though Finn couldn't see the Moonlight Pokemon, he was sure that Z was hiding safely.

They waited patiently, waiting for their prey. For the next few minutes Finn and Alexo played with a ball of yarn. They avoided any movements that would shift something in the closet, but were still listening in case someone came. Lydia was watching through a crack in the doorframe, and was constantly shushing the two cat-like Pokemon.

Finally, the sound of footsteps came from the staircase across the room, and a numerous group of Grunts started pouring into the room. A few men in lab coats started scouring the area in search of something while the Grunts secured the area with their Pokemon. Fortunately, none of them searched under the desks, where Z was hiding, as well as the little broom closet.

"Sir," One of the scientists motioned for an important-looking man to come over to him. The scientist flipped through an electronic device, stopping at a page, and held the device towards the other man. The other man, most likely the leader, took a moment to read the entry, and nodded in agreement.

"If that meteorite is here, then I need for you to go and get it," The leader of the operation said, making the scientist jump in fear. The scared scientist wasn't sure what to do, until the other man said something. "Edwards, I would prefer if you went now. And take that nosy Rotom with you."

Edwards! The name immediately clicked in Lydia's mind. The guy who wrote in that journal. " _Jeez_ , _he_ _looks_ _worse_ _off_ _than_ _I_ _thought_ ," Lydia suppressed a small giggle. He was worse than Finn, and that Luxio was practically a bumbling idiot!

" _What's_ _so_ _funny_?" Alexo asked through telepathy. It shocked the Fennekin for a moment, but she regained her composure quickly.

The Fennekin shook her head, and continued to watch all of the action. The scientist and his Rotom continued to search for the 'meteorite', while the rest of the Grunts were standing as guards. The leader seemed to have disappeared, but an Arcanine had taken his place.

She was hoping that someone would eventually give the word to attack, since her legs had started to get cramped. " _Come_ _on_ , _come_ _on_!" She thought, wishing that Alexo would respond eventually.

Someone did, actually, but it was not the Meowstic. It was a rougher voice, more masculine than the Constraint Pokemon. The voice growled, and said, " _So_ _there_ is _someone_ _here_ …"

" _What_?" The Fennekin started to sweat with nervousness, and had attempted to clear up the situation. Instead, she had just made it ten times worse.

Something barked from outside the closet, grabbing a Grunt's attention. Lydia now was able to see the Pokemon who had discovered her. A Lucario.

"What is it?" The Grunt grunted, and the Lucario pointed a paw at the closet. The Grunt took a moment to realize what the Aura Pokemon was pointing at, but the answer clicked in quickly. He leaned over to another group of henchmen and mumbled, "Lucario thinks that there are some Shifters hiding there."

" _Uh_ _oh_ ," Lydia began to panic. More sweat dripped off of her face as she turned to the two boys in the closet. The two were still playing, but a quick jab from the Fox Pokemon made them come back to reality.

" _What_ _happened_?" Alexo asked, his voice filled with innocence. He took a quick moment to scan her present thoughts, and stiffened up immediately. " _Oh_ _crap_ ," The Meowstic sighed inwardly.

At that moment, the closet door was thrown open, and the Shifters had no choice but to attack. Finn toppled over, rolling onto the ground like a bowling ball, and started to knock over the people and Pokemon at the door. Alexo immediately pushed back the Grunts with a Psychic attack, and Lydia attempted to summon an Ember attack… with no such luck.

With the weaker Pokemon out of the way, the three turned to the desk where Z was hiding. Lydia looked under it quickly while the two boys fought, but found nothing. "Are you freaking serious?!" She growled.

A Woobat was taken down with an excellent Charge Beam from Finn, and the numerous Poison Types soon fell due to their weakness of Alexo's Psychic attacks. A Skarmory began to engage Lydia, and she could not run away from it. The Armor Bird Pokemon shot out a flurry of Steel Wings, although the Fennekin dodged them easily. She charged up an Ember from the back of her throat, but only a weak little flame trickled out.

The Skarmory laughed, not afraid of the little Fox Pokemon. "I can't believe that a Pokemon can't use moves!" He chortled as he sent a little wind gust towards the Fire Type. She sidestepped the attack, glad that she was better with her agility than her attack.

"I may not be able to attack you yet, but I've been told that strategy is one of my strong suits," She grinned as she leapt on top of a desk. The Skarmory took the bait, and only realized that her sudden move was only a distraction. Before he could move, Finn used a Shock Wave that immediately sent the Armor Bird Pokemon to the ground, completely passed out.

"Good teamwork," A familiar voice came from behind the two. They both turned around to see Z, who was in his true Zoroark form. He watched the two's reactions before saying, "What? You thought that I left you guys? I was just taking care of some business." He grinned, and rubbed the fur on top of Finn's head, receiving a quick swat from the Spark Pokemon.

"So where did they go?" Alexo asked, noticing that the Grunts had escaped.

"Uh…" Finn meant that for everyone.

"Oh my Arceus," Alexo muttered. He reached out from his mind, and searched for the Ascent members. He found them almost immediately; all of the noise they were all making was starting to give him a headache. "They're downstairs. In the basement, I think," The Meowstic said at last.

"You _think_?" Z gave the Constraint Pokemon an incredulous stare, hoping that he was not wrong.

* * *

Absol heard a groan, and he knew at once that someone was waking up. He wasn't in the room where the two Pokemon were laid out, and he felt as though it wouldn't be a good idea to go in there, being the Disaster Pokemon and all. But the noise aroused his curiosity, and he could not help but peek into the room to see what had happened.

The Lucario was sitting up, looking as though he had been asleep forever. The Aura Pokemon rubbed his eyes with his paws, careful not to poke himself with his spikes. The Lucario stood up, and attempted to walk around, but his legs soon gave way, and he quickly tumbled to the ground.

At this point, Absol had to walk in, and he helped the Lucario to his feet again. The Lucario leaned his weight on Absol, but the white furred Pokemon could tell that the Lucario was not putting his full weight onto him.

"It's okay," Absol said, attempting to make the blue and black furred Pokemon relax a bit. He did, with a bit of annoyance, and Absol prompted for the Lucario to speak.

"I'm fine," The Lucario mumbled, trying to avoid leaning on Absol too much. "I need to be stronger anyway."

"Are you sure?" Absol asked, clearly concerned for the Aura Pokemon. Absol was not one for acting like a hospital Pokemon, but he was definitely more selfless than most Pokemon. "I'm here if you need me."

"I'm fine," The Lucario repeated, beginning to balance on his own. He stood upright for a moment before falling over again on his tail. He let out a yelp of surprise, and started to massage his forehead vigorously, making sure not to injure any other part of his body.

"Of course you're fine," Absol said somewhat sarcastically, going underneath the Aura Pokemon's arm in order to hoist him up. The Lucario did nothing to resist, although he seemed to be a bit stressed out about something. "Is there someone who can take care of you?"

"Yes, but I'm fine." The blue furred Pokemon seemed to stress that statement a lot. Speaking of indignant Pokemon, Absol himself was not ready to give up on the Fighting/Steel Type.

The Lucario then turned to Absol, forcing the Disaster Pokemon to look into his crimson eyes. They were filled with worry and sadness. Absol wondered what had happened to the poor Pokemon, but he was too scared that something might happen as a result of his 'question'. Absol could only look back in partial fear.

"Where are the others?" The Lucario asked suddenly, bringing back Absol to reality.

The white furred Pokemon had pretended to be asleep, all tucked in at that small corner, but he had really been eavesdropping on the children. "Uh, they had been talking about a weather institute? I do not know what they mean by that, but I can only assume that they went to it quite a while ago…" Absol trailed off, unsure of what else to say.

The Lucario took in the information, nodding slowly. He then asked, "Are you a fighter?"

That question seemed to be a bit too personal for him. He hadn't fought since the incident at Lake Verity. Was it possible that Absol was fit enough to fight? True, he had been running every day since then, but he had not used a single move since Verity. He wanted to help this Lucario, but he worried that he would be too much of a downer.

At last, Absol finally opened his mouth and said, "I will help you in any way I can."

But the Lucario didn't respond with a 'Thank you!', or 'Terrific!', but with silence. The Lucario picked up the Disaster Pokemon with ease, and took off.

* * *

Z woke up with a groan, his long red hair hitting him against the face. He spit it out of his mouth quickly, trying to get all of the hair out. After his hair stopped hitting his face, he finally got around to understanding what was going on. He tried to get upright, but gravity was forcing him down. He hung by the ankles from a thick rope, and his paws were tied together by a thick black cable.

Of course he was tied upside down.

He sighed, knowledge of what had happened slowly seeping back into his mind. He and the others were heading downstairs when they were ambushed by a group of sneaky Grunts. He remembered a Gloom using Sleep Powder, but that was it. So now he knew for a fact that he was trapped, but the location was something he still needed to find out.

"Hello?" He asked out loud. " _Damn_ _it_ , _you_ _never_ ever _do_ _things_ _like_ _that_ _in_ _this_ _type_ _of_ _situation_!" He bashed himself quickly, lightly hitting his head on the wall. When he was done, he looked towards the solid metal door, seeing that it was slightly open. "That wasn't there the last time I looked…" He muttered softly.

The door swung open suddenly, and three men walked into the room. Two were scientists, decked out in the traditional goggles and clean white lab coats. The other man, however, was dressed in black attire, accented with burgundy. His brown hair covered his eyes, and the belt around his waist was unmistakably the one he used to carry his Pokemon.

"Hello, young Zoroark," The black-clad man said quietly, pulling up a chair. He placed it in front of Z, just out of reach from the Illusion Fox Pokemon. "Do you know why you are here today?"

"Uh, because you're a bitch and a pedophile?" Z snarled, trying to squirm out of his bonds. He couldn't, though, and the only thing he could do was just hang there. And listen to the pedophile.

"Well, you aren't a bundle of joy," The man chuckled, and leaned forward to tap the Zoroark on the nose.Z, however, did not like that idea, and snapped his jaws before the man could get close enough. "And a bit snappy," He added, nursing his finger as though it had actually even bitten.

"You should see me when I'm all riled up," Z growled. "Where are the others?" He added with annoyance.

"The others?" The man turned t the two scientists, who gave him a quick nod. The man on the left whispered something in the man's ear, and the black-clad man let out a sigh of remembrance. Even though he knew the answer, he refused to say anything.

When the silence got to be too much, Z screeched, "WHERE ARE THEY?!"

This startled the two scientists, but the black clad man stayed still. He seemed unaffected by the Zoroark's threat, and started laughing. "You don't need to worry about them right now. Where you are going, you won't even _think_ about them."

By now, Z decided that it was time to deliver a lovely little poem that he had been thinking about for the longest time. It was only a few sentences long, but it was extremely colorful. He said it with the utmost sincerity, and seemed completely innocent while reciting his long practiced vulgar message.

The man had no response, only commenting with, "And such strong language! We'll have to do something about that after the experiments." He motioned the two scientists, who both went to work on the little monitors beside the Illusion Fox Pokemon.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Z screamed as one of the scientists picked up a syringe from a nearby table. He filled it up with some liquid, and walked over to the Zoroark. The scientist jammed it into the side of Z's neck, not bothering if the Zoroark was hurt in the process or not.

"What the hell is that?!" Z yelled, who started to move uncontrollably. "You wanna kill me or something?!"

"Oh no, we don't want to kill you," The black clad man smiled devilishly, watching the monitor for the medicine's reaction. "You are too much of an asset to kill off so soon."

Z wanted to say something, but his mind seemed to be slowing down. He started panting heavily, and his nerves became numb. He felt drowsy, and desperately wanted to sleep. But he couldn't sleep, or else something might happen. But the sleeping agent soon overcame Z's resistance, and the Zoroark soon succumbed to the darkness.

…...

…...

* * *

 **A.N.: I'mmmmmm back! Had some fun with this chapter, although I expected it to be longer. _Next_ chapter will be long-ish. 3K words per chapter has started to become the norm of this story…**

 **I'm releasing another poll! This go round, the question is on my profile. It's at the top, but it has smaller font than the rest of the profile. Just look for it somewhere. (Edit: I'm wrong. I moved it to my new forum.)**

 **I'm about to start a new Pokémon fanfiction focusing on Wally from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Meaning that the chapters may take longer to come out. Don't worry though! I still love everyone in this fanfic; I just really feel that a Wally-centered story is something I would just love to write about! Just keep an eye open for it; I don't have a title yet, but you can find it on my profile when it gets published.**

 **Other than that, I have nothing else to say. Chapter Fourteen, whoop whoop! Well, I shouldn't say that for Z. He got stabbed in the neck with a needle. But as I always say, "it could be worse" (he could've been stabbed in the eyes). But all I have to say is said, so have a good day and sleep. And eat too.**

 **:)**


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

 ** _Prerequisite: This chapter is the one that really deserves the T rating. It's the darkest chapter of this story. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED._**

* * *

Leon and Absol arrived at the weather institute, only to find that no one was there. "Huh," Absol huffed after the hour long search they had done. "You'd think that those kids would have stayed put, but something's telling me that something's wrong."

"That's because they're not here," Leon frowned, following a trail of scratch marks downstairs. Absol smelled the air around them, finding nothing unusual. The two found themselves at the basement of the building, patches of black fur littering the ground.

"It seems as though someone was in a fight down here," Absol commented, sniffing a black hair. "I think this was from the Zoroark."

"Z," Leon mumbled quietly, examining the fur. "They've been taken somewhere. The question is _where_ , though…"

"I have no idea," Absol sighed, pacing back and forth. The two Pokemon continued their search for any clues, but like the previous search, nothing turned up.

"Absolutely no clues," Leon muttered, punching a wall angrily. "They're in the city; I can feel it. But their presence seems to be blocked by some kind of psychic barrier…"

"Psychic?" Absol's head perked up at the sound of that word. "I happen to be very skilled against those guys."

"But that doesn't mean anything if we don't know where they are," Leon commented as he dove into his aura vision. He zoomed out of the weather institute, in order to see the entire city. The aura of so many different people and animals clouded his vision, but he noticed that one particular building had no aura at all. He thought that it was a bit odd, but he knew that was exactly where they were at.

"Found it?" Absol asked as the Lucario gave a satisfied sigh.

Without answering, Leon picked up Absol and sped off into the distance.

* * *

Finn awoke in a dark and damp room, his nose picking up all the horrid odors that resided there. "Where am I?" He asked, attempting to move although all four of his paws were chained. "Hello?" He called out, hoping for an answer.

Silence.

"Hello?" He said once more, waiting for an answer.

"Finn, is that you?" Alexo's voice sounded from across the room. He sounded a bit worried, but seemed otherwise fine. "Where are we?"

"You ask me," Finn muttered, and attempted to summon an electric attack. Nothing happened.

"Yeah, we can't use our powers," Alexo huffed. "I tried, and failed. I guess they've made some kind of device that prevents Pokemon from using their abilities. "Besides, I did ask you."

"Whelp, we're stuck here," Finn muttered. The two said nothing for the next few minutes, listening to the chatters of people on the walkie talkie that was in the middle of the room. They were interrupted suddenly by the sound of static, and a familiar voice came on the walkie talkie.

 _"Guys, if you're in there, you need to get out now,"_ Z's voice snarled _. "I've smashed those devices and you can get out now. Turn left as soon as you get out of the door, and I'll be waiting for you outside."_

"Wow. Talk about efficiency," Finn muttered as he felt the chains around his paws loosen. They collapsed suddenly, as did Alexo's. The two immediately ran out of the door, opening it loudly. They were met with an immediate Shadow Claw, which knocked them back a fair distance.

"The hell?!" Finn yelled as he looked to see who it was that attacked them. "Z! What are you doing?!"

The Zoroark stood above the two, breathing heavily. His eyes seemed crazed, as though he was in some type of hallucination. "I can't help it," He growled as he attacked them with another Shadow Claw. "They're controlling me! You have to stop them!"

"Aah!" Alexo yelled as he felt two firm hands wrap around his body. It was a black clad man, and he was chuckling excessively.

"Another Pokemon to add to our Shadow Pokemon project," He laughed as he shoved the Constraint Pokemon in a small cage, and threw it across the hallway.

"Get out of here!" Z yelled as another Shadow Claw escaped from his claws. "Get Alexo and get out of here!"

"I can't leave you!" Finn dodged the Zoroark's attacks one by one, but was getting more tired by the minute. "We've grown too close together to separate now!"

"You don't understand! They've done something to me! I can't control my body! Soon enough I'll lose my sanity! Get out of here before they make me kill you!" Z pleaded.

With guilt building up in his throat, Finn took off in the direction of the cage. The man who had gotten Alexo tried to grab the Luxio, but Finn was able to move out of the way before it could happen. He bolted towards the cage as fast as he could, but was then picked up by the man. He too was thrown in a cage similar to the one Alexo was in, and was also thrown across the hallway.

He tried to use another electric attack, but nothing came out. "I'm assuming these cages negate our powers," Alexo muttered, who then started to bash his head on the cage door.

"Stop it!" Finn said. "That's not gonna help. It's only gonna make your head bleed," He added for good measure.

The man then called off Z, and picked up the two cages. He then picked up the two cages, and covered them in some kind of thick cloth so then they could not see. "Let us out!" Alexo yelled, although the man could only hear the common cry of a Meowstic.

"Shut up!" The man yelled as he threw Alexo's cage against the wall. He then picked it back up and continued walking.

"Aaaand now we're definitely stuck."

* * *

She remembered the screams. Terrifying, heart pounding screams of agony. She knew it had to be Z. She recognized the fear in his voice, and knew that something was wrong. She couldn't do anything though; she had been wrapped in chains to the point where she felt like she was being suffocated.

But then he went quiet.

"Z?" She called out, hoping he would answer. There wasn't much of one, though, other than the low growl that could be heard from the other side of the room. "Z? Are you okay?"

"Shut up," He growled once more. "Shut up before they make me hurt you."

"What do you mean?" Lydia asked, eyes wide. "Where are we?"

"SHUT UP!" Z suddenly lept towards the Fennekin and slashed her side. She screamed as the nerves flared up, and pain took over. He put her in his jaws, and some of her ribs cracked from the pressure. He kept attacking her for what seemed like forever, or at least until she finally passed out from the pain…

…

Bliss…

…

Sweet bliss…

...

* * *

Leon felt the full pang of Lydia's pain, and crumpled to the ground immediately. He began to shake violently, attracting Absol's attention. "What's happening?" The Disaster Pokemon screeched as he ran to the Lucario's side.

Leon recovered quickly after losing Lydia's aura. It had dissipated faster than ever before, and he knew for a fact what had happened. "We've lost someone."

Absol nodded silently after a moment, taking it in. If this kept on going, then… Absol did not want to think about that. "We have to keep moving," He mumbled softly before continuing the trek to the warehouse. Leon slowly followed behind, sobbing.

* * *

"Test Subject has passed," One of the scientists smiled, watching some workers clean up the remains of the Fennekin. "Soon enough we can test the Luxio and Meowstic."

The other man in the room chuckled. "There are more," He replied. "If you can retrieve the Lucario and Absol, we can test them to their very limits. If they pass, then there should be no problem turning our main subject into a Shadow Pokemon."

"All those years ago… Cipher created the Shadow Project… They were foiled, of course, but the Shifters will not stop us. If they don't, they will join the ranks of Shadow Pokemon…" The scientist laughed as he mixed a number of chemicals and inserted it into two syringes. He handed them to the other man and said, "Go and take these to the Luxio and Meowstic. Do it when you're ready."

* * *

Alexo gasped when he heard Finn yelling from across the room. "Stop it!" He yelled. "Leave him alone!" No one, of course, listened to him. Finn continued to scream, as though he was being tortured. Alexo attempted to free himself from the chains, but there must have been another device that confined his abilities.

Finn stopped yelling, and waited until the two could hear a large metal door slam closed. "I-I'm f-f-fine… D-Don't ask a-about what h-happened…" The Luxio shivered.

"You're not fine," Alexo retorted. "You sound like you've been in shock." Even though he couldn't use his psychic powers, the Meowstic could definitely tell that Finn was worrying about something. "What did they do to you?"

There was no answer. At least, not to the question. Finn started mumbling, saying, "I can't… be quiet… I don't want you here…"

"Who's there?"

"It's nothing…" Finn answered this time. "I keep hearing voices… They're telling me to…" He hesitated, not wanting to continue.

"What did they say?" Alexo asked with complete seriousness.

"They want me to kill you."

* * *

"Where are they?!" Leon roared, throwing a desk towards the group of Grunts. It landed harmlessly in front of them, but he hoped that it would be enough for them to divulge the other's location.

It didn't work.

"We're not going to tell you!" One of the Grunts yelled. "We are so close to achieving our goal of returning Shadow Pokemon to the world, and our leader does not want it to end so quickly!"

"Well then," Absol muttered, which Leon translated to English. "I guess we'll just have to go with option C: interrogation."

"Never!" The Grunt tossed out a Pokeball, which held a Bronzong. Absol easily defeated it with a single Dark Pulse, and the Grunt recalled it hastily. "Fine! They're in a secret facility!"

"Always the secret facility," Absol commented, readying a Psycho Cut. "Where's the facility?" He asked with a bit of insanity in his voice.

"It's at the tower!"

"Let's get out of here," Leon mumbled, forcing the Disaster Pokemon to stop. "I know where they are." Absol relaxed, and the two quickly made their way to the tallest building in the city.

* * *

"The Luxio is reacting to the Shadow," The scientist grinned as he placed the meteorite in the large machine. "Soon, he'll break out and the test will begin. And while that's happening, we can finally bring Rayquaza to this world."

"And we can finally achieve our goal."

"Yes. As soon as the machine is charged, it will fire a beam that will instantly bring it here to this world. We can capture it, and then give it the Shadow to make it stronger."

" _If_ the Shadow works. Remember, it was difficult to get Cipher to divulge that information. It is possible that it may not work."

"But the Zoroark killed one of it's own team members. It would not have done that without the Shadow. It will work, I assure you. Give the Luxio a few more minutes, and it will show you that it actually works."

* * *

"You have to fight it," Alexo encouraged. "They want you to kill me. If you do, you'll just be helping them achieve their goal."

"But it's so tempting…" Finn laughed with a hint of insanity. "If only I was not confined… I could just make the voices happy…" The voices inside of his head were now screaming at him. Maybe if he did as they asked, they would be happy with him…

" _No_ ," He thought, trying to block out the noises. " _I_ _can't_ _do_ _it_. _Alexo's_ _my_ _friend_ … _I_ _can't_ _hurt_ _him_ …"

"You can do this!" Alexo cheered, hoping to help Finn as best as he could. Instead, it seemed to provoke the voices in Finn's head, enticing him to continue his homicidal thoughts.

"They want me to do it so bad…" Finn sighed, obviously going more insane by the minute. "If only I could do it quick, then they would be happy… oh so happy…"

"Snap out of it Finn!" The Meowstic yelled as the Luxio suddenly broke his bonds that held him. "If you want to listen to those voices, go ahead and kill me. But if you want to save me, then fight it! If you do what they say, then you're only taking the easy way out! Do what you want, but make the right decision."

" _Do_ _it_ …" The voices whispered. " _It_ _will_ _make_ _you_ _pure_ _again_ …"

"But I don't want to be pure. I want to be me."

Immediately a bright green light filled the room, blinding everyone. It only lasted for a minute, disappearing almost as soon as it began.

Alexo waited a moment before he said something. "Finn? Are you okay?"

He heard a moan, and then a voice spoke, "I'm fine." It sounded a bit deeper than before, but the Meowstic could definitely tell that it was Finn. The 16 year old stood up, and definitely had a different look. He seemed to have more black fur, which looked a bit rugged, and had grown at least twice his size. His eyes seemed to even be a bit more sinister as Finn gazed into Alexo's green eyes. "What is it?" He asked.

"Uh," Alexo stuttered, chuckling with joy. "I think you evolved!"

"You think so?" Finn took a little look at himself and smiled. "I'm a Luxray now!"

The wall behind him was destroyed suddenly, and the two turned around. "Leon!" Finn rushed over to the Aura Pokemon, who almost got tackled in the process. "Sorry," Finn laughed nervously, helping the Lucario up.

"You're fine…" Leon smiled at the sight of the two Shifters. "Where are the rest?"

"Uh, Z went crazy and Lydia's missing."

"Then it's true…"

"What's true?" Finn asked, wondering why Leon had hesitated to answer.

"It's nothing. You don't need to know now," Leon turned to Absol, who had come in while the three had been talking. "Absol and I have found out the most vital of information, and we need to-"

The loudspeakers in the building turned on _,_ and _a_ sinister voice started to speak _. "I know that the newly evolved Luxray has defeated the Shadow, but you cannot deny the power of Shadow Rayquaza! Come up to the top of the tower, and see it come into our grasp!"_

"Isn't that…?" Absol turned to Leon.

"Yes, the Leader of Team Ascent. We must stop him before he can summon Rayquaza." Leon noticed the flight of stairs on the other side of the room, and took off. The other three ran as fast as they could after him, but were nowhere close to matching the Lucario's speed.

* * *

"The machine is ready," The scientist chuckled as he checked the machine once more. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yes," The Leader of Team Ascent tossed out his personal Pokemon. "They'll be here in a matter of moments. Fire it now."

* * *

A brilliant green light shot out from the machine, heading towards the sky. Once it hit the outer atmosphere, it opened up a giant portal to the Pokemon world. Green sparks shot out from it, preparing for the emerging of the great Dragon Pokemon.

Moments later, Rayquaza flew through the portal, inspecting the new world it had found. It flew towards the ground, towards the tower that held the portal beam.

A dark ball of energy was launched at the Rayquaza, and was hit full on. It felt an evil presence take over almost immediately, and soon succumbed to the darkness…

* * *

"NO!" Finn yelled as he watched Rayquaza hit the ground. The rest of the Shifters had finally made it to the top of the tower, only to find that the Sky High Pokemon had already come. The Rayquaza slowly lifted off of the ground, and floated in front of the group on the roof.

"Rayquaza!" The Leader of Ascent called out. He held what looked like a meteorite, and tossed it at the Dragon Pokemon. Rayquaza ate it, and the man pulled out a rainbow-colored stone. A Key Stone.

"Rayquaza! Mega Evolve!" Immediately, the Sky High Pokemon changed shape, growing dagger-like horns and bright orange flames. It's black skin morphed, and it's once red accents now shifted to a more purple hue.

"What's happening?" Finn yelled as the now Mega Rayquaza roared.

"Don't you understand?" The Leader laughed maniacally. "We've given this Shiny Rayquaza the Shadow, as well as Mega Evolve it. Now it's Shadow Mega Rayquaza! With it we will control this world and the Pokemon world." He paused before continuing. "This is your last chance, Shifters. Either join us, or prepare to fight to the death. Either way, you will succumb to the darkness. Pick your favorite; you will lose either way."

* * *

 **A.N.: WHAT?!**

 **The true mission of Team Ascent has been revealed! Prepare for the final showdown in the next chapter!**

 **Sorry about the longer wait, though. I was working on the first two chapters of my other story. But be prepared for the next chapter! (HOPEFULLY in a few days…)**


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

"Let's do this!" Finn shouted as he shot a large Charge Beam out from his mouth. It hit the Rayquaza, but it seemed as though it had not taken any damage at all. Finn once again used a Charge Beam against it, but it still ended with the same result as before. "Uh… someone's not playing fair…"

"YOU FOOLS!" The Leader chuckled as he tossed out his own Pokemon. A Houndoom. "YOU THINK YOU CAN STOP THIS MONSTROSITY FROM TAKING OVER?! NOT EVEN ARCEUS CAN STOP ME NOW!"

Absol went rigid. He recognized the Houndoom immediately. It was the same one that had destroyed Lake Verity. The Disaster Pokemon went on the offensive as he shouted, "Time to face the music, Houndoom!"

The Dark Pokemon turned around, and saw the Disaster Pokemon in full. "Hehe," It's voice chilled Absol to the bone. "You are too late to recover your friend. She's gone, shipped off to Team Galactic, who put her to good use." The Houndoom sprinted towards Absol, preparing a Dark Pulse. Absol dodged it quickly, and countered with a Ice Beam.

The two quadrupedal Pokemon fought it out while the other three Shifters turned to the Mega Rayquaza. "We've gotta have a plan!" Finn shouted as he evaded a Dragonbreath attack from the Sky High Pokemon.

"I have no idea other than to just pummel it," Alexo admitted as he fired off a rather large ball of psychic energy. It hit the Mega Rayquaza, but the attack had no effect. "This is starting to get on my nerves!" The Meowstic grumbled as he kicked a nearby piece of metal with a little white foot.

"What are we gonna have to do to get this stupid thing to get hurt?" Finn muttered, hiding behind some kind of weather monitoring system. The other two Pokemon bounded towards the same hiding spot, hoping to buy themselves a few more moments of precious time before they were forced to battle again.

"So now all you want to do is hide?" The Leader teased as he watched the fight between Absol and Houndoom. "Houndoom!" The Dark Pokemon turned to its master immediately. "Destroy the Absol, and then kill the rest!"

"With pleasure," The Houndoom smiled deviously as it went to attack Absol again.

Leon stared at the two battling, a slow train of thought going through his mind. " _That Houndoom… It seems familiar…_ "

Then he knew. He remembered the Houndoom. And all of its wrongdoings. He stood up, ready to fight. "What are you doing?!" Finn yelled as the Lucario prepared to battle.

"There's something I must do," The Aura Pokemon's fist started to glow blue as he prepared an Aura Sphere. "Stay here. Do not come for me if something happens."

Leon fired a singular Aura Sphere at the Mega Rayquaza, drawing its attention. The Lucario pointed to the Houndoom and muttered, "He did it," as if he had not done it himself.

The Mega Rayquaza scoffed, and a bolt of lightning appeared from the sky and landed dangerously close to Leon.

"I thought we were friends!" Leon attempted to cheer the Sky High Pokemon up some, but the Shadow had already taken its course. He did not know much about the Shadow, other than the fact that it originated in the secretive region of Orre, and an evil syndicate named Cipher had created it, but nothing else was known about it.

The only known way to purify a Shadow Pokemon was to open its heart, but Leon knew that he did not have the time to do so. But he remembered a tale in which a Pokemon Trainer from Orre had obtained a special object that would summon Celebi and immediately purify the Shadow Pokemon.

What was the name of it again…? " _The Time Flute,_ " Leon thought at last. He'd have to find a Time Flute, and then play it to free Rayquaza from the Shadow. He stopped his fight with Mega Rayquaza, and bolted towards the door that led downstairs.

"And then there were three," Finn muttered, shooting an Electro Ball at the Mega Rayquaza. It had no effect, of course. "Let's just hope Leon knows what he's doing."

* * *

He had done it. He had killed her.

Z hadn't meant to do it, though. He could not control himself. The voices had told him to do it. They screamed at him to the point of near-insanity, begging him to do it. He didn't want to do it. But the voices made him.

He remembered the feeling of Lydia being in his jaws. Him ripping out her flesh. Bones cracking. Snapping. The horrible scream. The piercing cry. The last word: " _Why_?". And then silence.

And yet he had not stopped.

* * *

"You've destroyed my world!" Absol yelled as he produced a Psycho Cut with his horn. He slung his head forcefully, sending it towards the Houndoom. "You've taken my friend!" He sent a Dark Pulse next. "I've spent my life trying to find you! And now that I have, prepare to die!"

"You underestimate my powers!" Houndoom scoffed as he dodged the two attacks, responding with a Flamethrower. "Any moment now, my master will Mega Evolve me, and I will be more powerful than you!"

"For the time being, I'm going to make this a fair fight!" Absol threw a piece of weather equipment towards the Dark Pokemon, whose head was hit before it could move.

"You bitch!" The Houndoom's anger flared. "You're gonna deserve this beating!" An onslaught of Fire Blasts rushed out towards Absol, all of them collided and exploded in a great ball of smoke. There was no sign of life within the smoke.

"Absol!" Alexo called out, about to rush towards the Disaster Pokemon when he picked up a strand of thoughts. He processed them immediately and started _laughing_.

"What's so funny?!" Finn was about to Charge Beam his friend. "We just saw Absol get burnt to a freaking crisp! Now _you're_ the one acting like a homicidal maniac!"

"Just watch," The Meowstic chuckled as the smoke cleared. Absol's limp body was seen, as well as a small shimmering barrier.

The Houndoom saw this as well. "Damn it! You _have_ to have Protect in your moveset!"

Absol stood up slowly, a bit shaken by the force of the Fire Blasts. The barrier around him disappeared as he turned to the Dark Pokemon. He smiled and said, "I have too many tricks up my fur."

"Too bad I have Mega Evolution on my side!" Houndoom yelled as it turned to its master, "Master! Mega Evolve me now!"

But what had come next was something the four Pokemon could not expect. The Key Stone that was used to Mega Evolve Rayquaza started to dim, not letting a second Pokemon Mega Evolve.

"What?!" Houndoom roared as he turned back to the three Shifters. "I guess I'll have to take care of this myself!"

"Not on my watch!" Alexo growled as he clapped his hands twice. A green aura surrounded Absol as a power boost raced through the Disaster Pokemon. "Helping Hand's gonna help you through this, Absol!"

The Dark type nodded, and prepared a Dark Pulse from his horn. The green aura manifested itself in the attack, charging it up immediately. Absol swung his head, and the Dark Pulse rushed towards Houndoom.

The Dark Pokemon had no time to dodge this attack; he took the full damage. Houndoom was knocked back halfway across the roof, severely injured by the attack. "Curse you!" It yelled as he felt his energy draining.

The Leader took the time to notice his Pokemon's failure. He pulled out a singular Pokeball and held it in front of his defeated Pokemon.

"NOOOO!" Houndoom screamed as the Leader of Ascent recalled his Pokemon. "I can still-" Was the last thing that was heard from the Dark Pokemon.

"Well that was anticlimactic."

* * *

" _Where was it?_ " Leon thought to himself as he rummaged through the boxes on one of the upper floors. No result. " _It's gotta be here somewhere…_ "

That was when he heard the sobbing.

It was a soft cry, but the Lucario's ears were able to easily pick up the noise. He reached out with his aura vision and was immediately bombarded with emotions of pain, guilt, and extreme sadness. Whoever it was, they felt terrible for doing something…

"Hello?" Leon called out, slowly walking towards the voice.

"Leave me alone…" The voice whispered through a stream of tears. "I don't want the voices to come back…"

"Everything's okay," Leon consoled as he got a better look of the sobbing Pokemon. It was Z, hovering over a necklace. He held it carefully in his paws, his tears splashing on the Stone every few moments.

"Go away, Leon…" Z avoided the Lucario's gaze. "If you stay any longer… they'll come back…"

"They won't, I assure you…" Another voice came from the dark. It was a Tyranitar, hiding in the shadows. He walked up to the Lucario, who was about a third shorter than the Armor Pokemon, thus giving the Aura Pokemon a sense of intimidation.

"Who are you?" Leon asked, sensing a familiar attribute in the Tyranitar's aura.

"That should not be known right now," He answered quickly. "We have a bigger crisis on our hands."

"Yes, the Shadow Pokemon…" Leon mumbled, watching Z carefully. He then whispered, "I have the sense that Z is one of them…"

"Yes," The Tyranitar confirmed. "But there is a way to save them."

"Yes, the Time Flute," Leon muttered, starting to get a bit impatient. "But I have no idea where it is…"

"You get used to finding things after a while," The Tyranitar chuckled as he held up a map. The Lucario snatched the piece of paper out of his hands and read it carefully.

"Hmm…"

"I know where it is."

"Where?" Leon asked, feeling a bit stupid for saying that.

The Armor Pokemon said nothing. He instead walked out of the room, his heavy weight making the floor shake step by step.

"So now we just follow…" Leon muttered as he lifted Z to his feet. The Zoroark refused, however, struggling a great deal. "You can't stay here," Leon tried to get the Illusion Fox Pokemon to move, but Z did not want to move.

"Leave me here to die…" He sobbed as the Lucario took off to find the Tyranitar.

* * *

"Now for the final phase of my plan!" The Leader of Team Ascent cackled as he summoned Mega Rayquaza.

"What's he gonna do? Make the world pure again?" Finn asked sarcastically as Alexo began to prepare a large Psychic attack. "Uh, what's that for?" The Luxray pointed to the pinkish purple ball of squirmy light.

"If I can get this to be strong enough," Alexo huffed as the ball began to grow larger than the two. "Maybe I can convince Rayquaza to stop!"

"That's the optimist's goal!" Finn shot off a bolt of lightning by accident, charging up a random piece of equipment. "Whoops. Sorry about that. I hope that doesn't go on my bill," He muttered.

The Leader interrupted their little conversation by saying, "Why don't you come out from that little hiding place of yours and see how majestic the world can be?!"

Finn slowly walked out, charging up a Charge Beam. "I'm sorry, but I didn't order a world makeover! Maybe you meant to do that somewhere quieter, like MARS!"

"HOHOHO!" The Leader chuckled, watching Mega Rayquaza's every move. "We have the feisty type here! Too bad the Shadow didn't claim you sooner; you would have been an excellent soldier."

"You mean you wanted to brainwash me and my friends," Finn spat, a few sparks flying off of his fur because of his anger. "I get the fact that you've had a sucky life, but get over it! This shouldn't be the way things end! If you're so bent on making the world a better place, why didn't you do something like… uh…" Finn looked over to Alexo. "Help me out here!"

"Fools," The Leader chuckled. "Incompetent _fools_. You think you can stop me?" He motioned a hand towards Mega Rayquaza. "This is going to be the face of the new world! If you deny the fact that it is coming, you need to be put out of your misery!"

"Not so fast," A familiar deep voice boomed from the stairway. The two cat-like Pokemon turned their heads, thinking that it was Leon. It was, however, a Tyranitar, with Leon by its side.

"Wait a minute," Alexo put a paw to his chin, the other one still controlling the Psychic ball. "Aren't you Ty?"

"Yes, although that's not my real name," The Tyranitar grunted as he turned to the Leader. "We have some beef with you, Marcus, and it's not going to end well."

"Say… I remember your voice," Marcus thought to himself for a moment. "You were one of my workers. Mark Qwill."

Finn's heart stopped. "What?" He immediately said out loud. He felt his legs tremble at the sound of his name, a headache slowly creeping in.

"Finn? Are you alright?" Alexo asked.

Was this Tyranitar truly who the Leader of Team Ascent had aid he was? Was he really…?

The Luxray finally had the courage to walk up to the Armor Pokemon, and with a trembling voice, said, "...Father..?"

The Tyranitar looked down at the Gleam Eyes Pokemon, and studied him quickly. He opened his mouth and mumbled, "Finn?"

"That's me…" Finn smiled, a small tear rolling down the side of his face.

"It's so nice to see you after all of these years," Mark picked up his son, raising him into the air.

"Where were you? Mom and Maxwell and I thought that you were gone forever!"

"I can't tell you that. But I'm back, and that's what counts."

"Uh, I'm sorry to break up the family reunion, but we have a world remake to do," Marcus laughed. He turned to Mega Rayquaza and yelled, "Rayquaza! Dragon Ascent!"

"Oh no," Mark mumbled as he put down Finn. He turned to the four Shifters and said, "You need to get off of this tower now."

"But why?" Finn's heart started to beat faster. "What's going to happen?"

Mark didn't answer, but gave Leon a look. The Lucario nodded, and then picked up the Luxray. "We need to do as he says."

Absol put Alexo on his back, his Psychic sphere disintegrating immediately, "Let's go!" He said, following Leon down the stairs.

"Good luck," Mark whispered, hoping the Lucario could pick up his last words. He turned back to the Mega Rayquaza, who was disappearing into the atmosphere.

Any moment now, the Mega Rayquaza would come back down, and Mark would have to go through his final trial.

* * *

"Come on!" Leon shouted as he made it halfway down the stairwell. Absol quickened his pace, but stopped when he heard a groan.

It was Z.

"Get on my back!" The Disaster Pokemon yelled as he felt something shift in the building.

The Illusion Fox Pokemon was less than willing to go with them. "I've done a horrible deed," His voice cracked. "I don't deserve to live!"

"Yes you do! You're still young, and you still have a life ahead of you!" Absol tried to hurry up, feeling the building shift even more.

"But I have to live with the guilt of knowing that I killed one of my friends…" The Zoroark laid on the ground, a sharp claw dangerously close to his wrist. It looked as though he was about to slice the vein there.

"Too bad." Absol sent out a calming pinkish purple beam towards Z, who fell asleep quickly. With the help of Alexo, Absol was able to put the Zoroark on his back, and took off towards the exit.

* * *

"I'll be right back!" Leon told Finn as he sat the Luxray down and ran back into the tower. Finn awaited in fear, wondering if they would make it in time…

What was he thinking? He smacked his head forcefully with a paw, telling himself, "They're not going to die!"

A green beam of light shot down from the atmosphere, heading towards the roof. In response, a red beam of energy surged from the roof, apparently heading towards the green beam. The two seemed to be equivalent in size, and it was then when Finn realized, " _My dad's trying to defeat Rayquaza_."

He watched as the two attacks collided, causing a momentary stall. Red clashed green, one trying to overpower the other. It seemed as if this moment had been paused; the battle of strength seemed to last forever.

But then the Dragon Ascent broke through the Hyper Beam, and raced down towards the tower. Finn could not warn anyone fast enough; the green beam slammed into the building, causing a shockwave that knocked him out immediately.

* * *

 **A.N.: I don't have much to say, but I have to say yes to Iron-Ninja. It really happened.**

 **Next chapter will come out soon. Since it will be a shorter chapter, I expect it to be out tomorrow, if not the day afterwards.**


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

Finn awoke with a groan. Nothing ceremonious about that. But what surprised him was the fact that he was in a hospital room, and the fact that he was back in his human form.

"Hello?" He called out, accidentally knocking over a flower vase as he went to push the little alert button on the side of the bed. It beeped, and in a few moments, a nurse walked in.

"Is everything alright?" She asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice. She bit her lip slightly as she awaited an answer.

"I'm fine…" Finn's voice seemed to be a bit hoarse. "How long have I been here?"

"About a couple of days," She smiled as she handed him a small cup of water.

"A couple of days?!" Finn wait up immediately, but a nerve flared, forcing him to relax again. "What happened? Where are my friends?" He hoped to God that he wasn't stuck in some kind of Ascent lab.

"Everything's fine," The woman smiled as she watched Finn take a chug of water. "A lot of stuff happened, but it's all so confusing. But if you're asking about the four that brought you here, they're in the waiting room. I'll bring them to you." She walked off, and returned quickly with Alexo and Leon in their human forms, as well as a white clad man that Finn assumed was Absol.

"You're okay!" Alexo smiled as he gave Finn a hug. "I can't believe it!"

"Yeah…" Finn had to force Alexo to stop hugging him so then he could breathe better. "What happened? After…"

No one answered at first. Absol took a step forward and said, "I do remember what happened, but my memory fails me at times. It may not be as accurate as I want it to be..."

"I can show you," Leon suggested, raising a hand to Finn's forehead. "I can't tell you verbally, since words cannot describe what happened, but I can replay the incident in your mind. As long as you are strong enough, that is…"

"I can take it." Finn closed his eyes and prepared for what he was about to witness.

* * *

 _It was hard to see anything at first. Of course, ash and debris clouded his vision greatly. All he could really see for the moment was a dark shade of grey, along with the occasional amber flake._

 _Even though his sense of vision was blocked, he could hear someone yelling within the cloud of debris. "Hello?" He yelled, but then facepalmed when he remembered that he could not interfere with the memory. He could only listen._

 _"Mark!" The voice yelled, the sound of scuffling evident. "Stay with me!"_

 _"I'm too… weak…" The voice replied. His energy was being drained far too quickly. "Tell Finn that I love him, and I love his brother and mother."_

 _"No Mark, you're gonna make it. Don't say that now." The voice tried to console Finn's father, but it was to no use._

 _"Give him the… note…" The smoke cleared a bit, and Finn could see a Tyranitar on the ground, a Lucario hovering over him. The Tyranitar handed the Aura Pokemon a piece of paper, and received an incredulous look._

 _"But you can't go now," Leon mumbled as he get Mark's grasp loosen around his wrist._

 _"I've done what I can," Mark smiled weakly as he felt his last breaths coming. "Now it's your turn."_

 _And then he stopped breathing._

* * *

Finn didn't want to believe it. He forced himself out of the memory, and saw the three Shifters staring at him intently. Even though he wasn't a Psychic type, the 16 year old could feel the emotions radiating from their persons.

"So that's what happened…" Finn mumbled, his mind still not able to grasp the full reality of the concept.

"We could have done something if he had been able to hold on just a little longer," Absol said quietly.

"But he knew that he wasn't going to make it." Leon rested a hand on Finn's back, and said quietly, "Your father was a great man. He sacrificed himself so we could still be alive. Without him, we'd be gone. It's not your fault."

"Then why do I feel so guilty that I didn't even tell him goodbye?" A few tears started to drip from Finn's eyes.

"Don't be. You're too good to make yourself feel this way now."

"I know, but…"

"You want to read the note, don't you?" Leon asked as he pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his back pocket.

Finn slowly took the paper out of Leon's hand, his own hands trembling slightly. He straightened the paper as best as he could, and held it up so then he could read it. "Okay," He said, sighing heavily. And then he started to read.

* * *

 _Dear Finn,_

 _I'm sorry that I had not been able to see you grow up. I cannot stress that enough. I missed seeing you every morning before I went to work, and every evening when I came back. I wish that it was like that._

 _But you have to understand, I cannot turn back time._

 _You see, the day that I left you was the worst day of my life. When I left, I had only traveled a few blocks down the street when some kind of wormhole pulled me in. And I arrived in some kind of heaven, and the Pokemon known as Arceus came to me. He told me that I would have to stop Ascent from their future plans, even if it had to be paid with my life._

 _I told Arceus that I'd have to give some kind of sign that I was still alive, and that was the reason you received your Shifter Stone from your grandfather. We both hoped it would be enough to get you to realize that I was alive, but I suspect Arceus wanted you to join the fight as well._

 _Whatever the Alpha Pokemon was thinking, I believe he made the right choice. I was able to view your progress every so often, and I have no regrets when I tell you that you've grown to be such a great young man. A Luxray is such a majestic Pokemon, and it is an honor to see you become one._

 _If you've read this, you know by now that I am gone. I may be dead, but a part of me is still in your heart. Live the life you've planned for so long, and be who you want to be, not who others want you to be. And loosen up! Maybe you will eventually find the courage to ask that Lydia girl out! She's a nice girl, I have to tell you!_

 _I hope the best will come for you now that the threat of Ascent is gone._

 _"Live long, laugh much, and love often."_

 _Your father, Mark Qwill_

* * *

Finn tried to suppress a tear as he finished the letter. He sat it on the side table and looked back towards his friends. The three walked towards Finn, each of them consoling the 16 year old with a hug.

"I'm so sorry that this had to happen," Absol murmured. "I do not know why things had to go this way, but I believe Arceus had to have a reason to do things the way it did."

Finn smiled weakly, feeling tired from all of the crying he had done. He read back over the letter, and stopped when his eyes reached 'Lydia'. "Where's Lydia?" He asked, hoping that his friend was okay.

Everyone seemed to tense up at the sound of her name. Even Alexo, who was usually more cheery than most, seemed to have a dreadful disposition. No one wanted to say anything, which made Finn feel even more uncomfortable.

"Where is she?" He asked again, a dark thought running through his mind. No… she couldn't be… no… not _dead_ , right?

The reactions he got seemed to concur with his idea.

"She's dead… isn't she?" The others looked to each other, attempting to come up with an answer. "You don't have to lie to me. I can tell."

Alexo was able to communicate with the others through telepathy. " _We can't tell him who did it. It would break him._ "

" _Then that information needs to be kept a secret,"_ Leon added as he crossed his arms.

Absol nodded, unable to speak telepathically.

The three Shifters turned back to Finn, who was ready for an answer. "I want to know who did it."

" _Of course that's his first question,_ " Alexo muttered.

"We don't know," Leon lied, feeling a ball of guilt build up in his throat. "We were not there when it happened."

Finn nodded, deep in thought. He said, "Then I'll have to find them, and I'll make them pay. And they'll wish they had died instead of going through what I'll do to them."

Leon secretly wished that Finn would never have to find who had done it.

* * *

After the building had collapsed, after the wormhole that returned Rayquaza to the Pokemon world, after all of that, Z had been sent to the hospital. Celebi had been kind enough to release the Shadow from the Zoroark's body, but the aftereffects of the murder of Lydia still lingered.

He had done it. Even though the Shadow had manifested itself in his body, Z had the power to control it. But he had let it take over, and let it kill Lydia. He was not at fault. But he still had the same guilt that surrounded any murder.

A knock at the door startled him. It was Alexo, leaning against the doorframe. "How are you doing?" He asked, pulling up a chair next to the Illusion Fox Pokemon.

"Terrible."

"Well that sucks," Alexo mumbled as he prepared a small ball of psychic energy. "Maybe I could help ease the pain…?"

"No," Z said flat out. "I did it, and now I have to live with this guilt for the rest of my life."

"But it wasn't _you_!" The 12 year old frowned. "If you keep on blaming yourself for all of this, then you won't be able to enjoy the rest of your life."

"But how are you supposed to live with the death of a friend on your shoulders, knowing that you killed them?"

Alexo sighed. "I don't know." Before Z could say anything else, Alexo added, "I just want you to forgive yourself."

The Zoroark stopped talking and thought to himself for a moment. "Did you tell Finn yet?"

"I didn't say that you did it," Alexo answered. "I think you deserve a second chance."

"Fine," Z huffed, partially returning to his normal personality before sighing again. "It wasn't my fault. I could have done something, but then again, I couldn't. I can't bring her back, but I can remember her for as long as I live." He turned to Alexo and flashed a rare smile. "So what do we do now?"

"Whatever we need to do to live up to our full potential."

* * *

 **A.N.: Like I said last chapter, this one was quite short. Don't worry though! This is not the end! There will be an epilogue! So that'll be out in a day or two…**

 **I'm already thanking everyone that's reviewed and followed and favorited, because I love the support! If you want to review, now is the time!**

 **Anyway, see everyone next chapter!**


	18. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Lydia's funeral took place the day that Finn got out of the hospital. He made it just in time, before her coffin was lowered into the ground. Unlike most funerals, it was bright outside, giving many of the people there a feeling of dissatisfaction.

Once it was over, Finn started to walk home when he was stopped by a man in a tuxedo. "Are you Finn Qwill?" He asked, holding something behind his back.

Finn took a defensive posture, and countered, "It depends on who's asking."

The man brought his hands forward, letting Finn know that there was nothing dangerous there. Instead, it was a little white envelope with a red seal. The man held it out to the 16 year old and said, "This is for you."

"Who's it from?" Finn asked, studying the handwriting on the outside. It read:

 _To Finn._

"Lydia," The man smiled as he walked away. Finn was about to ask another question, but the man seemed to speed off before anything could come out.

Finn shrugged, and stuck the envelope in his pocket. He had to get home; his mother was going to be worried about him. He walked through downtown, where he was able to get a look at the main tower of the city.

It looked as though the top few floors had been blown off. There seemed to be a few streaks of green, contrasting with the black exterior of the building. " _Rayquaza must've put a lot of effort into that one attack,_ " He thought as he could see his house in the distance.

"That he did," A voice came out from behind a tree, and Leon stepped out. Alexo, Absol, and Z followed, and stood in front of Finn.

"Hey!" Finn smiled, stopping. He waited for someone to answer, but they seemed oddly quiet. "What's going on?" He asked, a bit of concern apparent in his voice.

It was Alexo who spoke. "You see, our job is done here. Arceus only planned for us to be here for only a certain amount of time, and _now_ …" He trailed off.

"Now it's time for you to go back home," Finn finished, his voice saddening with every syllable.

"Alicia and Rosa have already left," Absol added, fixing his hair a bit. "And Arceus plans to open a portal about now."

"I understand," Finn smiled, although a tear had started to stream down his face.

"Don't cry," Leon wiped it away carefully.

"It's just… you guys have been the closest friends I've ever had, and now I have to see you go…"

"We'll meet again," Alexo smiled, ruffling Finn's hair. "I'm sure of it."

A white circle of light appeared behind them, and Absol said, "I'll keep you in my memories." He then walked into the portal, disappearing entirely.

Alexo was next. He gave Finn a hug, and smiled. "See you later, Feraligatr!" He waved as he stepped through the portal, his smile the last thing Finn saw before he was gone.

Leon and Z were left. The Lucario shook Finn's hand firmly, and said, "It was a good thing, meeting you. I'm sure I would not be the Lucario I am today if it had not been for you."

"Thanks, and the same to you," Finn smiled as he watched the Aura Pokemon slip through the white sheet of light.

And Z. He seemed to avoid eye contact as he scraped his foot on the ground. "I'm sorry about Lydia…" He sighed, extending a hand.

"Don't be, you didn't do anything wrong," Finn shook his hand. "You're a good person, even if you don't act like it."

"Thanks," Z replied, making a peace sign with two fingers. "I'll see you around, I guess."

"See you around."

The final Shifter entered the portal, and it closed with a snap. Leaving Finn.

* * *

He now sat in his room, his eyes hovering over the letter that was addressed to him. He hadn't had the time to read it, and since his mother was cooking, he finally had enough time to read it without being crushed in hugs.

He broke the seal, and slid the paper out slowly. The letters were handwritten, and made with elegance. He unfolded it carefully, and started reading.

* * *

 _Dear Finn,_

 _I have no idea why I'm writing this. I could tell you face to face, but I guess I'm too afraid to tell you that way. At least with this letter, I don't have to really worry about your response._

 _Soooo… Anyway… I've enjoyed being around you. You're really funny, and even though you can be a bit stupid and ridiculous sometimes, I still enjoy being around you. At first I thought that we could possibly be friends, but I feel like there's a bit more than that._

 _I've noticed that you get kind of nervous around me, and I'm starting to wonder if you… I'll leave the rest to you._

 _But I think I feel the same way._

 _I don't know why this letter is even here, probably because I'm just a scared little girl who is afraid to show her emotions. But I guess this makes me feel less nervous when I say that I like you._

 _You're probably laughing right now, but I'm serious. Maybe after all of this stuff is done and over with, do you think we could go somewhere… just to get to know each other. I'm being genuinely sincere when I say it, and I hope you take it into consideration._

 _I hope you understand._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Lydia_

* * *

 **A.N.: Thank you so much for supporting this fanfic, and thanks to all of those who helped review and follow this story! I love that it was well received, and that a lot of you liked it!**

 **And now for one of my favorite quotes, from Patrick Ness.**

 ** _"A book, it's a world all on its own. A world made of words, where you live for a while. And then it's over."_**

 **Which makes me smile when I tell you that Finn's adventure is not over yet.**

* * *

"Project One was a failure, but are you sure Project Two is going along well enough to initiate?"

"Yes." The Leader of Ascent smiled devilishly as he tapped his fingers on his desk. "Start it as soon as it is ready."

* * *

 **A.N. #2: Hehehehe! I don't know when it'll come out, though, but maybe after my Wally fanfic. I've enjoyed being around people who love this, and I hope to see you when Vol. 2 of The Shifter Stones comes out!**


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